LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Measurements:

23.46 in. (59.60 cm.) (height) by 32.01 in. (81.30 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed in Chinese; dated with one drawing seal on bottom left

Provenance:

PROVENANCE15 Oct 1995, Sotheby’s Taipei Autumn Auction, Lot 115Important Private Collection, AsiaA life tranquil and beautiful, with the sunlight illuminating the world.Forest—a representative work of Yan WenliangThe Chinese realism master, Yan Wenliang, kept persistent art creation throughout his life. By drawing from life, he unveiled the truthfulness, compassion and beauty out from the landscape, establishing his position in Chinese oil painting history. In 1982, the art critic, Xiao Feng wrote in an article for Shanghai Fine Arts Communication magazine that “the landscape from Mr Yan is realistic while elegant, exquisite and neat, authentic and vivid. Such as his paintings of the tree, looking from a close distance, there are only fields of colour. But one step back, different layers show themselves, displaying the floating branches and leaves. Delicate yet concise, the work doesn’t show any pretentiousness with rich colours, but on the contrary, fascinates and refreshes the viewers.” The presented Secluded Forest is one of the most representative works. The Shadows of Trees Appear from the Clouds, charming with either deep or bright hue.In Secluded Forest, Yan Wenliang took green as the dominant tone. Through its different shades and distinct gradations, Yan depicted the scene that everything thrives by the pond, leaves overlapping each other, light interleaving with shadow. In the distance, Yan rendered the clouds with subdued misty white, adorned in the crystal blue sky, while the dense trees were sketched with rough strokes. The sunlight passes through the leaves and adorns the shed, creating a vivid scene of nature. In the foreground, trees and mottled veins on the trunk were depicted by refined brushwork, revealing the traces of growth. With skilful employment of colour, Yan presented the shades to perfection, making it at all times a pleasure to see. A splendour of life, a fusion of the East and the West.In the scene of a transition season between winter and spring depicted here, the artist captured the subtlety of light and nature in every detail. In the spring chill, the scattered green grass starts to sprout, reflecting golden halo from where the light sheds. Together with the staggered reflections of trees in the pond, we see Yan’s rendering of light is sentimental and expressive, comparable to the painting language of the Western Impressionism master, Monet. Early in 1934, the Fine Arts Life magazine has commented Yan as “the unparalleled in modern Western art history of our country”. Take another look at the work. It is evident that Yan has ingeniously employed the use of lively colour from Impressionism during his studying in France. By applying a thin layer of paint in the background, the artist illustrated a transient landscape gracefully. A life tranquil and beautiful, a blend of scenery and sentiment.In his book, Principles of Perspective, Yan emphasised that “scenes and objects in the painting must be in close and strong association with one another, they cannot be floating or dislocated, nor should it be empty and rootless”. The work, Forest, blends natural elements of grassland, tree shade, pond and distant mountain, showcasing the artist’s highly skilled arrangement of the whole composition. By tackling an intricacy scene in an easy manner, Yan unfolded an enchanting and tranquil forest, fascinating both in appearance and spirit. The work is well arranged with distinct foreground, mid-ground and background. Following the Western perspective rule, the light enters the forest from the broad vision by the pond, passes through the vigorous grove and then returns to the glittering surface of the water, arousing aspirations for a tranquil and beautiful life in the viewer. Yan’s achievement in landscape painting derives from his life-long lasting studying and inquisition in colour and perspective. Secluded Forest, as if a classical lyrical poem, fascinates the viewer in a silent moment, leading us to the artist’s internal sentiment and a poetic and pictorial splendour.