LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Measurements:

23.62 in. (60.00 cm.) (height) by 36.02 in. (91.50 cm.) (width)

Markings:

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

Exhibited:

EXHIBITED1979, Exhibition of National Painting Masters’Animals Series, Exhibition Hall of Shanghai Zoo（former Shanghai Xijiao Park）, Shanghai

Provenance:

PROVENANCEPrevious Collection of Mr. Guo Dadong, Deputy President of Shanghai Buddhism AssociationJun 1999, Shanghai International Products Auction.co Spring Auction, Lot 37Truth, Beauty and GrandeurRunning Horses, A precious Animal-themed Painting by Yan Wenliang“When appreciating art, people tend to perceive their own feelings’reflections. Happy people usually find happiness in art. Those who are miserable usually find misery. Artists, on the other hand, should at all times remain unconstrained and open-minded. They ought not to seek fame, neither should they appear miserable or worried. In my opinion, one should, regardless of actual circumstances, remain positive while creating a piece of art.”—— Yan WenliangSublime Spirit：Persisting in His Own StyleYan Wenliang is a firm representation of the first wave of Chinese artists who studied abroad and specialized in Western painting, but this particular artist is a pioneer of the development of modern Chinese art. Serving as the first president of Suzhou Art School, Yan became on par in fame with Xu Beihong, president of Beijing’s National Art School； Liu Haisu, president the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts； and Ling Feng-mien, president of the National Hangzhou School of Arts. These artists had been labeled by painter Peng Xunqin as the Republic of China’s four greatest in their position, and all four were spearheads of the national modern art movement of the time.The other three masters became active in the areas of oil and Chinese ink painting. Yan Wenliang’s whole career, on the other hand, was spent on exploring the depths of oil painting, which led him to discovering a unique style and philosophy of painting on his own. Even though he never took up Chinese ink wash calligraphy, he somehow managed to combine in his creative processes the Western language of oil painting with Eastern values and aesthetics. Art critic Shang Hui once said, “Yan Wenliang was one of the very few Chinese artists to have a truly firm comprehension of impressionism while at the same time being a Courbet-influenced Europe-taught realist oil painter. In his artistic language, he was closer to Chinese aesthetics, but when compared with the other pioneers of modern Chinese art, Yan’s style sported a great number of differences among many similarities.”As Mr. Yan said himself, “Realism comes before beauty.” He had great knowledge of classical Western realist oil painting, especially of the usage of light and colors, yet he wanted to get closer to Chinese aesthetics, thereby making a substantial breakthrough in the process of creation. His mastering of light came from times when he was an apprentice in Shanghai’s Commercial Press. At the time, there was a large machine in one of the printing house’s workshops, which provided shelter from most of the sunlight coming inside through the window, and this thus created complex variations in lighting. That was how, during his two-year stint at the Press, he was able to finish numerous subtle sketches, and from that point on, Yan already had a great awareness of the contrast and refractions of light and dark. The exquisiteness in detail found in his works, moreover, was learned while practicing drypoint painting, and such an experience allowed him to develop a unique painting style and aesthetic standard.Back in 1928, the then president of Suzhou Art School went to study abroad in France, an act that was encouraged by his good friend Xu Beihong, who thought it would help him gain a better grasp of Western art. During his stay in Paris, one of his works, Kitchen, was awarded with an honorable mention during Le Salon de Printemps 1929, making Yan the first ever Chinese citizen to win such an award. Instead of resting on his laurels, he rather put even more effort toward completely engaging himself in his personal study of Western art, and he would often go to art galleries and spend time contemplating famous works of 16th century Western realist oil paintings （with which he had already been familiar back in China） and analyzing the painting techniques of impressionist masters. According to Yan, Impressionists actually pursued the portrayal of realistic snapshots of the scenery they observed. He considered impressionism, then, to be realism taken to another, higher level. Ever since, Yan Wenliang managed to add some of these Western aesthetics to his work ideology and creation processes to master the display of the poetry of colors and constantly perfect the art of light, in the end combining them with his own personal sense of realist technique he had had since the very beginning. Only once Presented to The Public：The Largest Animal-themed WorkMost of Yan Wenliang’s work is related to landscapes, as the painter mastered the art of capturing the beauty of nature passing away in a blink of an eye. Running Horses, auctioned now, is one of the three paintings by Yan which are animal-themed, and it is meanwhile one of his life’s 20 large-scale works.Why would an artist create a piece dedicated to horses, though？ For an adequate explanation, one should go back to 1957, a time of great political unrest for the Chinese nation. It was a time of strict control of art by the government, which forbade the painting of portraits, landscapes, still lifes, nudes, and other oil pointing-related genres. Instead, artists were required to perform and create by “plunging into the thick of life”. Animals therefore became Yan Wenliang’s sole personal theme at that time. During such political turmoil, this work can be seen as one of the very few by Yan which expresses his actual personal emotions. As artists became increasingly uneasy due to the rampant ideological cleansing taking place, Running Horses barely made any public appearance and never became well known to the people. According to historical records, in 1979, not long after the Cultural Revolution had ended, a student of Yan Wenliang’s named Li Qiangsheng organized Exhibition of National Painting Masters’Animal-Themed Works, inviting renowned Shanghai-based artists such as Yan Wenliang, Liu Haisu, Zhu Qizhan, Xie Zhiliu, Tang Yun, Cheng Shifa, and others. Yan Wenliang himself chose Running Horses to be put on display at this time, proving the importance of the work in his own view. The exhibition was also the first time Running Horses was presented publicly. It took a very long time for the painting to be completed, as the artist began his work in the 1960s and had to stop as a result of the political and social unrest, and final touchups were not even completed until the eve of the 1979 exhibition. Indeed, Running Horses is itself a deep study into the artist’s painting style and life experiences.As If Alive ：Seeing the Dawn of A New Era in LifeYan Wenliang once said, “Creating art should be placing one’s mental state into form. Form must therefore come first, and only then should one put his or her emotions [into the work].” In his painting Running Horses, Yan took care of every smallest detail. Using his exquisite technique and smart use of colors, he skillfully presented eight horses in different postures. Some of them are raising their hooves, whereas others are resting calmly. Their manes and muscles are quite vividly depicted, and even though the painter was already in his seventies when finishing the painting, he never lost the ability to present the beauty of realism, depict the tiniest details with the utmost accuracy, and firmly manifest his pure love toward life and nature. At the same time, along with realism, his technique gives an impression of optimism and happiness, causing associations with the end of the Cultural Revolution, as if the artist finally bid farewell to the hardships of life and restored his artistic capabilities. This all gives the work its incredible significance.The Harmony between Images and Scenery ：The Integration of Western Perspective TheoryIn his paper The Harmony of Leaves, Yan Wenliang provides a thorough analysis of how to portray trees and grass and, depending on the point of view, presents quite different patterns of art composition, very accurately expressing the natural state of a forest’s undergrowth. “The leaves, in their natural state, are not only symmetrically curved,” the essay stated. “Their shape is lower in front and higher in back. Once there are many leaves forming a group, they are not restrained to be thin slices, but unequal and thick pieces also happen to appear. Thus, while painting, one must perform an analysis from a general perspective.” The artist’s pursuit of perspective and his macro- and microscopic approach to painting trees and leaves can easily be found in Running Horses. For example, looking at the depicted trees and grass on the vast, wild fields, one can observe the variations from richer to thinner elements, as if watching would all of a sudden make one feel the trace of a light wind on the fields. The long-range views were painted with a larger brush, while a thinner one was used to portray the close-ups. The thicker and thinner application of paint create an impression of depth of field. It is as if the viewer is absorbed into the painting； images and scenery are finally brought to a harmonious balance.The Continuous Pursuit of Truth and BeautyYan Wenjiang, a master of painting nature and scenery, would compose thick clouds by overlaying oil paint. The piece brings one’s thoughts to Monument, which Yan had created during his visit to Italy in the 1930s, and although the themes of the two paintings are completely different, the way of painting the sky and the clouds seems astonishingly similar, for example the overlaid clouds, the dots of blue sky between them, and even the sunlight coming in from the upper right-hand side. Perhaps the artist himself, coming off the harsh times of the Cultural Revolution when finishing the work, then remembered his travels to Europe, blue skies, green grass, his own youth, and a time when he was eager to learn. The carefree manner in which he depicts the horses may therefore also be a reflection of such optimism throughout his entire life.Under the sunlight, the hooves of the horses sometimes form a deep and sometimes shallow reflection on the grass. The sunlight in the painting is itself multi-layered, resembling the harmonious movement of a symphony. It may serve as evidence of what the artist had said in The Study of Colors：“All the astonishing paintings are based on the fine and exquisite formation of sunlight and the beauty of different colors blended into one shape.” This work therefore came as all but proof of his life-long pursuit of beauty.“I find happiness in the process of painting. It lets me allow others to feel this happiness, and while others become happy, it makes me even happier as a result.” Even though there was a great deal of pain and sorrow during Yan Wenjiang’s life, he never allowed any negativity to enter his works. The opposite is rather true； he always presented joyous and splendid pictures, vaguely showing his worldview and sense of aesthetics, of which Running Horses is a phenomenal example. The painting had originally been snatched up by Guo Dadong, head engineer at the Shanghai Bureau of Textile Industry, and in the last 20 years, it has not made a single appearance on the market until this very auction, making this work quite worthwhile for collectors to contemplate and consider possessing.