PROVENANCE:

Collection of celebrated Chinese caricaturist Mi Gu (a gift from the artist)

Collection of celebrated engraver Li Qun (autonym: Hao Liqun)

Collection of Hao Ming

Collection of Sanhuai House, Hong Kong

EXHIBITED:

The Art of Lin Fengmian, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, December 12 - 29, 1992

ILLUSTRATED:

South China Morning Post (Report on Lin Fengmian's exhibition at Hong Kong Arts Centre), Hong Kong, 1992, illustrated

Gu Zhujun ed., The Collected Works of Lin Fengmian Part II of II, Tianjin People Fine Arts Publishing House, Tianjin, 1994, color illustrated, no. 108

Zhou Weiming ed., Collection of Art Garden Studio No. 72: Sanhuai House's Modern Chinese Paintings, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Shanghai, 2004, color illustrated, no. 14, p. 10

"Landscape with Fishing Boats" has been in the collection of the "Sanhuai House" Wang family of Hong Kong for many years. According to the Wang family, the painting originally belonged to the Chinese woodblock print maker Li Ch'un (b. 1912, originally named Hao Li-Ch'un), who subsequently left it to his son. It can be seen from the collectors' seal impressions attached to the bottom left-hand corner of the painting that it was also at one time in the possession of the cartoonist Mi Ku (1918 – 1986). Both Li Ch'un and Mi Ku studied at the Hangzhou National College of Art, which was founded by Lin Fengmian, and both wrote articles praising Lin's work and his artistic style.

Mi Ku contributed an article entitled "I Love Lin Fengmian's Paintings" to a 1961 issue of Art magazine, in which he praised Lin Fengmian's landscape paintings, with their pronounced sense of solitude amidst vast spaces. However, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution both this article and Lin Fengmian's art came under intense criticism in China. One paragraph in Mi Ku's article describes his reaction to viewing this painting, "Landscape with Fishing Boats". "Although Lin Fengmian's 'Landscape with Fishing Boats' uses similar color tones to his 'Fishing Boats', it gives us a completely different feeling. The verdant hills and their gauze-like covering of mist give the landscape a silvery-grey tone. The thick mist above the river makes it difficult to tell where the river ends and the hills begin. A handful of fishing boats lie at anchor in the embrace of the mountains and the river as the sun begins to set, adding a touch of life to this tranquil scene. I don't know which location Mr. Lin had in mind when he painted this picture, but for me it brings to mind the poet Li Po's lines describing the Three Gorges: 'From both banks, the steady sound of shrieking monkeys fills the air'; one feels oneself magically transported through the azure waters and towering peaks."

Lin Fengmian painted "Landscape with Fishing Boats" around 1960. At this time Lin had retired from public life and was living quietly in Shanghai; he must surely have been able to sense the approaching storm of the Cultural Revolution, and expressed this feeling in landscape painting in a similar manner to the literati painters of old. The depiction of light and shadow in this painting – with the same color being used for water and sky – makes it a true masterpiece.