LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991)

Landscape Gouache on paper Signed lower right and stamped red 69 x 69 cm A certificate of authenticity from the artist's grandson dated September 19, 2020 will be given to the purchaser on request. Provenance: Private collection Born in 1900 in Guangdong, China, into a stonemason family, Lin Fengmian arrived in France in 1918. He received his first artistic training in Dijon and then at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Some of his works were exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, and in 1923 in Strasbourg. He returned to China in 1925, where his first solo show took place in Beijing. In 1928, he took over the direction of the new Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, playing an essential role in the reform of art education in China. Lin was one of the major actors in the break with the artistic traditions of his country. Lin Fengmian has established himself in China as an artist providing Western-style education and, from another point of view, as a representative of Chinese art in the West. He was able to develop a very personal work inspired both by Chinese folk art and by the masters of modern Western painting. We note for this work presented, the innovative choice of the artist who opted for a square composition as opposed to the rectangular shape imposed by the traditional scroll. This square format was then almost unknown in Chinese painting. The choice of a Western-style composition is also illustrated by the absence of calligraphy or references to some illustrious poet, which brought a mystical sense of which we know the importance in Chinese painting. Here, the painter affixes his simple signature in a corner of the work embellished with a traditional stamp. At the age of 36, Lin announces his principles as an artist that he will respect all his life: an attachment to nature, a keen sense of observation and a distance from money and fame. Very much influenced by Matisse, Rouault and Picasso, the artist a