LIN FENGMIAN | Figure

executed in 1980s

Important Private Asian Collection

Hong Kong, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre, The Art of Lin Fengmian, 1992
Taipei, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, China-Paris: Seven Chinese Painters who Studied in France, 1918-1960, 26 March - 26 June 1998
Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum, The Approach of Lin Fengmian: The Centenary of Lin Fengmian, November 1999

Artist Publishing, ed., Artist Bi-monthly Issue No. 33, Artist Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 1983, p. 16
Mok E-Den, ed., Collection of Chinese Paintings (Vol. 1), Superior Art Design & Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 1989, plate 68
Irene Ngan, ed., The Art of Lin Fengmian, Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong, 1992, p. 100-101
Collection of The Modern Chinese Masters - Lin Feng Mian, Jinxiu Cultural Publishing House, Taipei, 1993, cover, p. 192
Du Ziling, ed., The Collected Works of Lin Feng Mian Vol II, Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing, Tianjin, 1994, p. 191-192
China-Paris: Seven Chinese Painters who Studied in France, 1918-1960, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 1998, plate 8, p. 77
Xu Jiang, ed., The Approach of Lin Fengmian: The Centenary of Lin Fengmian, China Academy of Art Press, Hangzhou, 1999, p. 278
Yang Hualin, ed., The Complete Works of Lin Fengmian Vol III, China Youth Press, Beijing, 2014, p. 41

The work is overall in very good condition. Upon close inspection, there are some very minor spots of foxing in scattered places.
"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."

A Fully Integrated Eastern Aesthetic of the Body Lin Fengmian’s female nudes reflect Eastern art’s modern interpretation of a beautiful nude body. Figure (Lot 1028), created in the 1980s, symbolizes the artist’s lifelong study and understanding of the human body. The work first appeared in a Lin Fengmian feature published in the Hong Kong magazine Artist (issue 33) in 1983, then it was included in another Hong Kong magazine, Collection of Chinese Paintings, in 1989. In the 1990s, he held very important exhibitions at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and the Shanghai Art Museum. When viewed together with the figural works of Sanyu and Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita also presented in this Evening Sale, we can see that these three Eastern masters all had their own unique skills. Lin developed his original modeling language by connecting Eastern sources with Western art.

Lin Fengmian began painting nudes early on. His major catalogues and other documents show that while he was studying abroad in France in the 1920s, he began with European Academicism, then rapidly engaged with Modernism, with obvious influences of Fauvism, Futurism, and Expressionism. After the 1930s, when Lin returned to China, Eastern brush and ink came to have a more marked influence on the modeling of his female nudes. The outlines of his figures were pleasant and smooth, but they were more closely related to the linear aesthetics of figures that were popular for periods in the Jin and Tang dynasties. This laid the stylistic foundation for Figure. Lin Fengmian painted female nudes with lines like thin iron wires, and the goal was not just to blend Eastern traditional techniques harmoniously with Western Modernism. Carefully examination of the painting will reveal that he was devoted to developing Western classical themes, introducing the beauty of Western nudes into China, while subverting landscape’s dominance in Chinese painting since the Northern and Southern Song periods. This was consensus in the Republican art world more than half a century before. On Dec. 8, 1947, the Shanghai newspaper Shen Bao published a long article entitled “Lin Fengmian’s Artistic Ideas Contain a Renaissance,” which may have contained the best explanation for Figure, even though it had not yet been painted. It described a nude woman sitting in the middle of a square painting holding her legs. Her body was generally made up of circles, reflecting Lin Fengmian’s classic “circles in a square” compositions. The nude female body was drawn in ink lines, painted with a flesh tone, and enveloped in white gauze, which naturally has an elegant, delicate beauty. The work also echoes Henri Matisse’s notable Pink Nude, in which he modeled the nude with curving lines and flatly applied color to create an intrinsic, quivering vitality. In the treatment of the background, Lin reserved about half the space for a screen window. The woman is accompanied by a bunch of flowers and a carpet; the transparent curtains are a classic setting. In a way, the vertical curtains and the wavy horizontal pattern create geometric cross shapes, which seem to have been inspired by Matisse’s patterned fabric, as well as elements of Mondrian’s geometric abstraction. The colors in Figure are refreshing and bright, led by transparent teal, silver-gray, and white lead and symbolizing the season and the time of day. If we compare it to Nude (Lot 705) in this season’s Modern Art Day Sale, we can clearly see that Figure communicates the quiet joy of an early spring morning, while Nude seems to reflect the broiling boldness of high summer in southern China. Both works have a brilliance that reflects a modern master’s skill with the aesthetics of the female nude.