FU BAOSHI (1904-1965) - Lot 114

FU BAOSHI (1904-1965) Character in a mountainous, leafy landscape Fan-shaped ink drawing Signed, located and dated: "Fu Baoshi, made in December 1960 in Nanjing Red stamp 25 x 51.5 cm (at sight) Fu Baoshi was born in 1904, so he was 8 years old when the imperial system came to an end and the Republic of China emerged. Largely self-taught, his early pictorial research was dominated by historical concerns. His first publications are devoted to the history of Chinese painting and earned him the support of Xu Beihong, which enabled him to travel to Japan to study at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. An accomplished figure painter, his landscape works are inspired by traditional painting through an infinite set of references while renewing the genre thanks to a particular brush technique, the use of dots and new inking. He thus creates an elegant style, integrating a poetic atmosphere, which is personal to him. With the Sino-Japanese war, he settled at the foot of the Chongqing mountains, creating landscapes of exceptional beauty in which small characters appear as if lost in the immensity of nature. If Xu Beihong appreciated his "free and unconventional" paintings, his great passion for Art, his compositions and his unique Art make him one of the greatest Chinese masters of his time. Leader of the new Chinese painting movement, he is widely recognized by his peers and will therefore be Vice-President of the Confederation of Chinese Artists, Director of the Jiangsu School of Painting and will teach in the Art Department of the Central Unit. The work we present for sale testifies to the artist's talent for landscape but also to his admiration for the painter Shitao (1641-1720), painting and calligraphy being intimately linked.