LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991) 林风眠 - Lot 135

LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991) 林风眠 Animated lake landscape with a small bridge and pavilion between two weeping willows, a boat in the foreground. Ink and light colors on paper, signed lower left, above a red stamp. 77 x 77 cm (Framed under glass). Condition : Some foxing and slight yellowing of the paper. Provenance: French family who lived in Shanghai from 1920 to 1960. About the artist : LIN FENGMIAN is one of those painters on whom the West in general, and France in particular, will have a very significant impact, which they will then transmit to China, upsetting ancestral landmarks and traditions. In 1918, like a number of his compatriots, he had the opportunity to go to France as part of a study program. He was one of the pioneers, along with Xu Beihong. Lin Fengmian stayed in France until 1925, first in Dijon, then in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He then returned to China, where he taught at the National Academy of Art in Peking, then at the Hangzhou Academy, of which he was director in both cases. There, he taught what he had absorbed in the West, initiating, along with other contemporary artists also influenced by Western art, a profound break with Chinese artistic traditions, and playing a major role in the reform of art education in China. His pupils included Zao Wuki, Zhu Dechun and Wu Guanzhong, who in turn travelled to France, becoming as famous as the master. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, his work was heavily criticized by the authorities. He was even imprisoned for 4 years. He eventually left China and settled in Hong Kong in 1977, while continuing to travel the world.