Vente aux enchères en direct 21793Fine Chinese Modern and Contemporary Ink Paintings

Lot 1140FROM A DISTINGUISHED ASIAN COLLECTION (LOTS 1132-1140)

LI KUCHAN (1899-1983)

Chrysanthemums and Orchids

Fermé31 May 2023

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HKD 63,000

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LI KUCHAN (1899-1983)
Chrysanthemums and Orchids
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
37 x 65.5 cm. (14 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.)
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist

Acquired directly from the artist, thence by descent.

This collection belongs to a family of intellectuals in 20th-century China. Hailing from an affluent family, the collector pursued postgraduate studies in the United States specializing in international law and history. He later travelled to Europe where he undertook research at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Sweden. He returned to China in the late-1950s and joined the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The collector’s wife also came from a prominent family with roots in Hubei. Her father was a renowned railway engineer who presided over numerous notable projects, such as the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Road and Yunnan-Burma Railway.

Part of Beijing’s intellectual circles, the collector couple had a passion for art in addition to their professional pursuits. They became friends with some the country’s leading intellectuals and artists, including Li Keran, Fu Baoshi, and Huang Zhou. Bonding over their mutual appreciation for art, literature, and history, these artists often gifted paintings to the collector couple as tokens of friendship. Examples in the couple’s collection include an exquisite figure painting by Fu Baoshi, given to the couple as their wedding gift, and a magnificent landscape by Li Keran. These works attest to the breadth and depth of artistic output in this collection. Li Xiaoke, son of artist Li Keran, recalled that his father had always wanted to go on a sketching trip to the Tibetan Plateau to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas, but his dream was never fulfilled. In the late-1970s, the collector gifted Li Keran two albums of photographs of the Himalayas by a Swedish photographer. Li used these materials to create a set of sketches and named the folio A Research on Mountains, demonstrating the extraordinary friendship between the two.

The collection has remained in the family and has been preserved for over half a century through turbulent times. Part of the collection, including Li Keran’s paintings from different periods, was offered at Christie’s in May 2019. The present selection includes works by renowned Beijing painters Li Keran, Huang Zhou and Li Kuchan of various times and subject matters. We hope these paintings will be treasured by connoisseurs as much as they were by the collector couple.

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LI KUCHAN (1899-1983)

Chrysanthemums and Orchids

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LI KUCHAN (1899-1983)

Chrysanthemums and Orchids

Considering selling a similar item?

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