ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)
Lot 1153 PREVIOUSLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF KUANG SHI (LOT 1153)

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)

Spring in Lishan

Closed31 May 2023

Price Realised

HKD 1,638,000

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ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)
Spring in Lishan
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
30.4 x 46.5 cm. (12 x 18 1/4 in.)
Signed, with two seals of the artist
One collector’s seal

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Paintings, 6 May 2002, Lot 40.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Paintings, 8 October 2012, lot 1237.

Specialist note

The collector’s seal on the painting belongs to Kuang Shi (1924-2015), master of Huaixuancao Tang. He was born in Changsha, Hunan and was passionate about Chinese painting, calligraphy, seal carving, photography, and gardening. He studied painting under Zhang Daqian and opened a commercial art gallery in Taipei named Chinese Culture Shop, where he promoted Chinese art, including his teacher Zhang Daqian’s paintings.

The painting was originally part of a twelve-loose-leaf album gifted by Zhang Daqian to Kuang Shi during his time in Brazil. It depicts Li Shan (Mount Li, Slamao), a beautiful mountain range along Taiwan’s newly opened Central Cross-Island Highway in the mid-1960s. Although undated, Zhang Daqian probably painted this work in or soon after 1964. That summer, Zhang was amazed by the landscape of the mountains of Taiwan during his travels on the highway. After returning to Brazil, he painted this work with his signature splashed ink technique, full of life and aspiration, as a gift for Kuang Shi.