Cloudy Mountains
Liu Haisu, whose father had joined the Taiping rebellion, came from a family with progressive views. Liu studied painting with the leading intellectuals Wu Changshuo and Chen Hengke and learned calligraphy from the revolutionary Kang Yuwei. Liu opened the first public art school in Shanghai in 1912 and became a champion of the New Art Movement there.
He traveled in Japan and Europe, lecturing, mounting exhibitions, studying Western works and developing the oil painting techniques he had first attempted at the age of fourteen in China. In the 1930s, he turned to traditional Chinese media as did many artists, but he has continued to paint in oils as well over his long career.
This fan painting is an example of Liu's enduring interest in the landscapes of South China, here rendered in traditional medium and style. Only the strongly contrasting areas of light and dark show his experimentation with Western ideas and techniques.
He traveled in Japan and Europe, lecturing, mounting exhibitions, studying Western works and developing the oil painting techniques he had first attempted at the age of fourteen in China. In the 1930s, he turned to traditional Chinese media as did many artists, but he has continued to paint in oils as well over his long career.
This fan painting is an example of Liu's enduring interest in the landscapes of South China, here rendered in traditional medium and style. Only the strongly contrasting areas of light and dark show his experimentation with Western ideas and techniques.
Artwork Details
- 近代 劉海粟 雲山圖 扇面
- Title: Cloudy Mountains
- Artist: Liu Haisu (Chinese, 1896–1994)
- Date: 20th century
- Culture: China
- Medium: Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on alum paper
- Dimensions: 7 7/8 x 21 5/8 in. (20.0 x 54.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.267.364
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Liu Haisu
Painting datable to the early 1940s; retouched and inscribed by the artist in 1965
Liu Haisu
dated 1964
Liu Haisu
dated 1975
China
Stele: Song dynasty (960–1279), 960–68; rubbing: 20th century
Yang Yi
dated 1923
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