WU GUANZHONG (1919-2010) Villages at the Foot of the Wuyi Mountains, ca. 1978-1980PROPERTY FROM A CALIFORNIA COLLECTIONWU GUANZHONG (1919-2010)Villages at the Foot of the Wuyi Mountains, ca. 1978-1980Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, with two artist's seals Guanzhong xiesheng and Tu. 27 1/8 x 27in (69 x 68.5cm)吳冠中 (1919-2010) 武夷山村 設色紙本 立軸 約一九七八年至一九八〇年間鈐印：冠中寫生、荼A subject of great importance to Wu Guanzhong, the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province have been the subject of multiple studies since his first visit to the site in the autumn of 1977. An early prototype of present lot's composition is an oil painting executed in 1977, currently in the collection of the National Gallery of China (fig. 1). Compared to the later works with the same composition, the oil painting is a more faithful representation of the scene. In the present lot, the village has been scaled down and recessed to enhance the contrast between the imposing solidity of the mountainscape and the fleeting transience of the river and human existence. The small peak at the left edge has been eliminated and the stream moved to the foreground to create a simpler but visually more compact composition. The topmost point of the peak crowned with vegetation has been shifted slightly left, which corresponds diagonally to the interpolated tiny palm trees in the lower right. The black-and-white houses bestrewed with marshmallow colors has been left as a 'void' zone surrounded by brown washes, creating a visual consonance with the horizontal expanse of sky and the pale-blue distant mountains at the top edge of the paper. The façade of the mountain has been transformed into three giant curving rock forms, mirroring the meandering brook flowing in the opposite direction.Apart from the composition, the change of medium is also noteworthy. Wu Guanzhong wrote in his diary that his experience in Fujian in late 1970s inspired him to turned away from oil painting and focus more on Chinese ink painting during late 1970s-1980s: 我在油畫中引進線，煞費苦心，遭遇到無數次失敗，有一次特別難堪。大概是在70年代末，我到廈門鼓浪嶼寫生......一年後，我這心病猶未愈，便改用水墨重畫這題材，相對說是成功了......因此油彩難於解決的問題，用水墨往往迎刃而解。 (I painstakingly incorporated lines into oil paintings but faced numerous failures. One of the most embarrassing experiences was in late 1970s, when I was sketching in Gulangyu in Xiamen (Fujian Province)...I had been perplexed by this problem for a year. Ultimately, I repainted the same subject matter using ink, and the result was relatively positive...Issues that cannot be solved by oil painting might be easily worked out through ink painting.) (Wu Guanzhong. "Zhe Qing, Wanwan Duanbude 這情，萬萬斷不得." In The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. 9, edited by Shui Zhongtian and Wang Hua, p. 86. Changsha: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007.) Starting in 1978, Wu Guanzhong began utilizing ink and color on paper to repaint the Wuyi Mountains. A dated example in this genre was sold recently at Poly Beijing, 22 February 2023, lot 2512 (fig. 2). It has a very similar composition, the same seals and seal placement as the present lot and was initially unsigned. The artist went back and forth between the old and new compositions in 1980s, as evidenced by an ink-and-color piece sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 May 2005, lot 108 (fig. 3), which adopted the composition of the oil painting. In the late 1980s, the artist further developed the composition by employing his signature palette of grey, white and black; see one example dated to 1988 in the collection of Shanghai Museum (fig. 4), exhibited in Cultivation and Devotion: Works of Art Donated by Wu Guanzhong at the National Art Museum of China in 2009, and an undated example sold at Poly Beijing, 4 June 2016, lot 3307 (fig. 5). As in the present lot, both works depict palm trees in the foreground, which are absent in the other comparable examples. Fig. 1 Wu Guanzhong, 武夷山村 Villages at the Foot of Wuyi Mountains, 1977; signed "荼, 77" (Tu, 77); oil on canvas, 19 5/16 x 24in (49 x 61cm); National Art Museum of China, Beijing. Image: Shui Zhongtian and Wang Hua eds., The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong (Changsha: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007).Fig. 2 Wu Guanzhong, 武夷山村 Villages at the Foot of Wuyi Mountains, 1978; initially signed "七八年" (1978), with two artists' seals "荼" (Tu) and "冠中寫生" (Guanzhong xiesheng); ink and color on paper, 26 3/4 x 36 1/4in (68 x 92cm). Image: Poly.Fig. 3 Wu Guanzhong, 武夷山下 At the Foot of Wuyi Mountains, 1980; two artists' seals "荼" (Tu) and "八十年代" (bashi niandai); ink and color on paper, 26 3/4 x 36 1/4in 18 3/8 x 22 3/4in (46.5 x 57.8cm). Image: Shui and Wang eds., The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. 5, (Changsha: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007), p. 127.fig. 4 Wu Guanzhong, 武夷山村 A Village in the Wuyi Mountains, 1988; signed "吳冠中，一九八八" (Wu Guanzhong, 1988), with three artists' seals "吳冠中印" (Wu Guanzhong yin), "荼" (Tu) and "冠中寫生" (Guanzhong xiesheng); ink and color on paper, 27 1/2 x 55 1/8in (70 x 140cm); Shanghai Museum. Image: Shui Zhongtian and Wang Hua eds., The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. 6 (Changsha: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007), pp. 194-195. fig. 5 Wu Guanzhong, 武夷山村 Villages at the Foot of Wuyi Mountains; signed "吳冠中" (Wu Guanzhong), with two artists' seals "荼" (Tu) and "冠中寫生" (Guanzhong xiesheng); ink and color on paper, 26 x 51 1/4in (66 x 130cm). Image: Poly.