Top-100 artists:
We use our proprietary AI - LiveArt Estimate™ to calculate current market value for each artwork. Based on this data LiveArt is able to provide numerous insights into artist and artwork financial performance, including:
See the measure of artist investment performance relative to risk. A higher ratio suggests better risk-adjusted returns, indicating more consistent performance with less risk.
Explore the most prolific periods in an artist's career based on artwork production volume and current market value. It also segments these periods by category, offering insights into when the most valuable pieces were created in each category.
Free to sign up. No credit card required.
| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 3, 2019 | China Guardian | Beijing | 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale | 2057 | $****** - ****** | Living in the Mountains | |||
Dec 5, 2015 | Poly International Auction | Beijing | Modern and Contemporary Arts Evening Sale | 5513 | $****** - ****** | Inhabit the Mountain | |||
Apr 6, 2014 | Poly International Auction | Hong Kong | Chinese and Asian Modern & Contemporary Art | 102 | $****** - ****** | Dwelling by the Hill |
Works on Paper
67 x 67 cm (26.38 x 26.38 in)
Ink and colour on paper
Previous Collection of Yuan xiangwen.
Chinese Modernist Painting Master: Lin Fengmian, P59, Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House, May 2005.
Signed in Chinese, and sealed (middle right )
LITERATURE:
Chinese Modernist Painting Master: Lin Fengmian, P59, Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House, May 2005.
Signed in Chinese, and sealed (middle right )
PROVENANCE:
Previous Collection of Yuan xiangwen.
Lin Fengmian is known as the “pioneer of Chinese modernist painting” and is one of the enlighteners and pioneers of modern Chinese art. He combined Western modernist art with the culture in Han and Tang Dynasties, and pioneering the fusion of Chinese and Western art to form a unique style of painting in the history of Chinese modern art. Living in the Mountain created in “Chongqing Period”, which was an important stage of Lin Fengmian's artistic career. From this period on, he used the lonely mallard, Jialing River and lady as his repeated themes, initially completing the innovation of modernizing the art language of Chinese ink painting.
Lin Fengmian was born in Mei Xian, Guangdong Province in 1900. He went to France for studying when he was 19. He studied in École nationale supérieure d'art de Dijon and Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, during which time he was influenced by the modernism. He extensively learnt about Post-impressionism, Fauvism and Primitivism and other art groups, and re-recognized the essence of oriental art in the Western world. Lin Fengmian returned to China in 1925, founded the National Academy of Art and served as the first dean, and began to promote the artistic concept of Chinese and Western fusion to take root in China.
After 1937, the Sino-Japanese War started and Japanese army headed south. Lin Fengmian went to schools in many places and later resigned from the post of dean because of the disagreement from his colleagues. He lived alone in the Jialing River in Chongqing and devoted himself to painting. Thus, the period of 1938 to 1945 was also called as “Chongqing Period” of Lin Fengmian's artistic career. Living in the Mountains has the typical style of “Chongqing Period”. The painting is in a square composition, with triangles and rectangles building up the houses as well as brief lines for outlining the ups and downs of the mountains. It is quite different from the traditional wrinkle method, but from the strong outlines in the artworks from Han and Tang Dynasties, which is extremely infectious. The addition of yellow, blue and red to the house and the foot of the hill, and the less blank space, reflect the influence of the Western modernist schema.
In the picture, the square lines of houses and the undulating mountains complement each other. The stacking of houses in the close shot makes a balance of the patching of distant mountains. The undulation of the mountainside is painted with simple wrinkle method and the changes and the blooming of ink colour create a profound space and a harmony sense of beauty. The theme and the overall peace and quiet atmosphere of the painting convey the implication of traditional Chinese landscape painting. Lin Fengmian combined the geomatic structure with the concept of traditional Chinese ink painting with creativity. The lines stacked by thick ink are spared with any stagnation, which is similar to a symphony of different instruments, bringing a unique harmony and nature.
Wu Guanzhong has commented Lin Fengmian: “From the East to the West, there is Lin Fengmian. And from the West to the East, there is still Lin Fengmian.” It is the connect with Western modernism during his studying in France and the absorbing of Chinese traditional culture that make Lin Fengmian reflect the spirit of freedom in Western art and the richness of oriental ink painting at the same time. He naturally blended the different expressions of Western and Eastern arts. This piece of Living in the Mountains is a perfect embodiment of this kind of combination in terms of composition, colour and charm.
