Ink and colour on paper, mounted as a hanging scroll. Signed Baishi Laoren, with a dedication to Mr. Shao Yizhong (Donald Sutherland) and two seals of the artist, "Qi Da" and "wu nian ba shi ba (at age eighty eight)," dating the work to 1948. Also included in this lot is a Wang Qingfang (1900-1956) ink and color on paper hanging scroll painting. Signed Mangdang shanren Wang Qingfang, dated 1947, with inscription and an artist's seal.
Qi Baishi, one of the most prominent figures in modern Chinese painting, is celebrated for his striking expressiveness, embraced in his fluid brushwork that emphasizes simplicity and spontaneity over rigid detail. The artist’s career unfolded amidst the turbulence of war, bridging feudal and modern China, achieving distinction in all four highly regarded disciplines of painting, calligraphy, poetry, and seal carving.
His later style drew inspiration from late Ming expressionist masters, particularly Bada Shanren and Xu Wei. Whether shaped by his rural upbringing or the artistic influences he encountered, while his contemporaries revolve their creation primarily around landscape, Qi Baishi embraces nature’s common objects as the theme of his art. Fish and prawns, flowers and insects were all favored in his repertoire. He believed in the artistic power to elevate the ordinary, revealing beauty in aspects of nature cherished by the common people but often overlooked by the literati.
The present scroll of Wisteria stands as a testament to his mature style and his belief, with alluring hues of purple interspersed among a dynamic rendering of wet splashes of foliage and drier, inky vines—a fleeting beauty of ordinary nature.
Also included in this lot is a painting by Wang Qingfang, a contemporary of Li Kuchan and a close friend of Qi Baishi, who taught alongside him at the National Art School in Beijing. Though highly skilled in painting, he also mastered seal carving and created countless seals for Qi Baishi, who, despite excelling in the same discipline, greatly admired his talent.
Born in Canada, Donald Marshall Sutherland (Shao Yizhong) was a lieutenant commander of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, and eventually became the assistant curator of the Far Eastern Department at the Royal Ontario Museum. After returning home from serving in World War II, Sutherland enrolled in the College of Chinese Studies in Toronto and in 1947 he traveled to China to further his studies of Chinese language and arts. While studying in Beijing at the College of Chinese Studies, Sutherland took classical Chinese painting lessons from Pu Ru (1896-1963). He also became interested in modern Chinese paintings and developed an admiration for Qi Baishi and his works. After visiting an art exhibition in Beijing in April 1948, he wrote, “The things I liked best were by Peiping’s grand old man of modern painters, Ch’I Pai-shih (Qi Baishi), a man of over eighty who paints flowers, fish and fruit in juxtaposition, and often chickens which are done with a freedom of brush stroke which is actually exciting to look at.” Donald Sutherland became friends with the artist and eventually purchased six of his paintings. The present painting of Wisteria has been in the continuous possession of Donald Sutherland and his family since he acquired them.
Please note: the Wang Qingfang painting measures 25 1/2 x 12 3/8 inches.