YU CHENGYAO (1898-1993)
Lot 1016

YU CHENGYAO (1898-1993)

Dawn Break over Spring Mountains and Streams

Closed8 July 2020

Price Realised

HKD 1,000,000

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YU CHENGYAO (1898-1993)
Dawn Break over Spring Mountains and Streams
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink on paper
96.5 x 183.7 cm. (38 x 72 3/8 in.)
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist
Further inscribed by the artist
Dated autumn, dingmao year (1987)

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Paintings, 7 October 2013, Lot 1455.
Collection of Tathata Gallery.

Specialist note

Born in Fujian in 1898, Yu Chengyao served in the military until his retirement in 1949 after which he settled in Taiwan. Yu was educated at the Waseda University in Japan and taught at the Whampoa Military Academy from 1923.
Throughout his youth, Yu memorized the magnificent landscapes he saw in China and Taiwan and began to paint them only upon his retirement. His paintings express his appreciation for his motherland, the longing to return, and the reminiscence of a life that passed. Although Yu did not receive formal education in painting, he saw nature as his teacher. He believed that an artist can only capture the real proportion and distances through fully immersing oneself in nature. His dense and unconventional brushworks give life and energy to the landscapes he portrayed. Irrespective of his technique, Yu shows the true essence of the literati by manifesting the connection that the ancients and nature shared.