Lot 504
  • 504

Pan Yuliang

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 HKD
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Description

  • Pan Yuliang
  • Standing Nude
  • ink on paper
  • 52 by 34 cm. 20 1/2 by 13 3/8 in.
signed in Chinese and stamped with the artist's seal

Provenance

Private European Collection

Condition

This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of light tears along the bottom edge of the work. There are scattered black marks and Chinese characters on paper, presumably inherent to the nature of the medium.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Pan Yuliang had a storied life. Despite losing her parents as a young age and despite the prejudices of a conservative society, she worked tirelessly and fearlessly to develop her gift. Forging a path of her own in the art world, she became a universally respected master and garnered a uniquely important place in art history. She graduated with flying colours from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1925, and was then awarded a scholarship to attend its counterpart in Rome as the first Chinese female student. In 1929, she was invited to return to China by Liu Haisu, then Headmaster of the Shanghai School of Fine Art, to lead its Western Painting Department, where she inspired a liberal atmosphere with her energy and experimental daring. In the same year, she showed over 200 works in the "Pan Yuliang Homecoming Exhibition of Chinese Paintings," which was widely attended and discussed and which earned her the reputation of the "foremost Western-style painter in China."

Pan Yuliang fulfills the Western aesthetic criteria of realism and figurativeness using Chinese means, but without losing the spiritedness of subject or the dynamic balance between substance and void prized in Eastern painting. Hu Xinmin, the former director of the Anhui Museum of Art, has commented on this unique technique, "Pan Yuliang successfully, miraculously combines Chinese ink-and-brush sensibilities with the texture and volume of Western painting, creating an idiosyncratic aesthetics that is at once transcendent and concretely tangible. Her compositions retain the pregnant voids of Chinese painting, and yet she fills these voids with dots and crosses, skillfully reconciling East and West."