MODERN CHINESE PAINTINGS FROM A DISTINGUISHED BRITISH PRIVATE COLLECTION





MODERN CHINESE PAINTINGS FROM A DISTINGUISHED BRITISH PRIVATE COLLECTION重要英國私人珍藏二十世紀中國書畫LOTS 887-891(introduction continued from previous lot)Discussing the paintings which he has consigned for this auction, Sir David relates: 'I have always admired the work of Fu Baoshi, after I became familiar with the artist in the 1960s in Hong Kong. As far as his painting of 'The Scholar' is concerned, I recollect I was on a trip to the Canton Trade Fair (as it was then known) to which I was a regular visitor on behalf of Jardines in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It would have been bought from a state-owned antique shop, in which Westerners were permitted to buy art and antiques in foreign currency.Shortly after returning from our honeymoon in June 1968, and having moved into a new house, we were burgled one night. In the early 1960s I had started collecting Chinese porcelain, jade and paintings, and about sixty pieces were stolen including a painting by Fu Baoshi. In the next couple of days, the burglary was reported in the Press several times. The thief was caught by the Police and jailed but, by then, all the stolen goods had been disposed of and were never recovered. About a week later, Mr Y.C. Huang (Huang Yu Chia, sadly now deceased) a Senior Advisor to Jardines (and my former boss in the Jardines China Trading Division) was contacted by China Resources Ltd in Hong Kong, with whom Jardines did regular and substantial business. They said they had heard of the burglary and, if I was interested in a replacement Fu Baoshi, 'they had one available'. Y.C.and I went along, and this magnificent painting of Chairman Mao's birthplace was produced. Although the cost was somewhat above my 'pay grade' at the time, I bought it and it has been a centrepiece of our paintings ever since.I bought the smaller 'Shaoshan' view because at that time I mostly preferred Fu's landscapes to his figural paintings, and I really loved my major 'Mountain' view. The smaller version was interesting, I thought, for its different perspective and colour tones, presumably because Fu was painting it in the wooded foothills at a different time of day, so I bought it when it was offered to me in Hong Kong as a diminutive but striking pendant to the big one.Huang Zhou was not a well-known artist when I was visiting China in the late 1960s or early 1970s, but I liked his subject matter and it only cost a very small sum at the time for such an amusing subject. I cannot remember exactly which gallery I bought it at, but it could have been either in Hong Kong at Tsi Ku Chai, or in China.I have always admired the work of Wu Guanzhong. My wife Carolyn believes that we must have bought our 'Lake Pavilion' scene in Hong Kong in the early 80s, probably from one of the imaginative contemporary art galleries.' These paintings are therefore all being offered at auction for the first time. They were purchased purely for pleasure by a private collector, drawn to an intriguing and unfamiliar category of art. In this way, they illustrate the pleasant and much more relaxed circumstances in which fine collections were formed in Hong Kong during the third quarter of the twentieth-century; a period when Hong Kong's cultural life thrived greatly, under the stimulus of accelerating economic prosperity throughout the region.



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