executed in 1950s

Collection of Guan Hanxing
Acquired directly from the above by the present important private Asian collector

CANS Art News Editing Team, Guan Liang 1900 - 1986, Chinese Art Books Co., Taipei, 2012, p. 106-107

The work is in its original condition. Under UV light examination, we notice traces to suggest that the canvas had been removed from the stretcher and was rolled up.
"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."

Guan Liang, a painter whose creative practice included a mastery of both oil paint and watercolour, combined the philosophies of Chinese and Western art, and he played a crucial role in the evolution of Chinese modern art. At the time of his arrival in Japan as a student in 1917, Japanese painting circles were being profoundly influenced by Western modern art. The visual bombardment of this combination of Eastern and Western art fostered in Guan Liang an especially keen cultural sensitivity, and he gradually developed a style that incorporated Chinese traditional art into Western Modernism. Guan, whose background was in the study of Western painting, is known for his watercolour portraits of Beijing opera characters, and his oil paintings are far more rare than his watercolours on the market. This season, Sotheby's presents two of Guan Liang's important oil paintings, one still life and one opera character portrait, in order to remind collectors of his achievements as an oil painter and turn a new page in the auction market for his art. Guan Liang's costumed self-portrait (Silang Visits His Mother): A Play within a Painting, as Vivid as Life

Guan Liang's costumed self-portrait (Silang Visits His Mother) (Lot 1014), featured in this spring's Evening Auction, is a unique work to appear on the market, and moreover, it is the only surviving self-portrait that Guan Liang painted in oils. As a consequence, this is a work of rare and incomparable value. In Western art history there is no shortage of artists who painted self-portraits, including Rembrandt, a representative painter of the Baroque period, who variously recorded his own rises and falls in wealth and poverty. The nineteenth-century painter Van Gogh also painted a series of solemn, mournful, and frustrated self-portraits, all of them moving works of self-expression. In contrast, Chinese painters of the past have tended towards more circuitous forms, using symbolic images to represent themselves. The Qing dynasty painters Shitao and Ren Xiong were exceptions who produced paintings of themselves, but for the most part, the self-portrait is not a style of painting of great relevance in Chinese art history. Guan Liang cast off this restrained way of thinking. Adopting the persona of the opera character Fourth Son, he deliberately constructs his self-image as a painter. Guan Liang's costumed self-portrait for (Silang Visits His Mother) utilizes the Western art style of the half-length portrait, and the artist's side-lighting technique highlights the figure's outline and costume while endowing the tableau with the ambience of the Chinese opera stage.

“Opera offers me an indirect experience of human behaviour, strengthening my love for virtuous characters, my hatred for ugly and evil, and my yearning for the artistic realm."
Guan Liang

Guan Liang bore a special reverence for Beijing opera. From a young age, he often attended operas and enjoyed making sketches of the characters. Later, he studied opera himself and attained the proficiency required of performers. Silang Visits His Mother was one of the operas that Guan Liang performed to his own satisfaction. The script recounts a story of filial affection. The protagonist is trapped in a political predicament abroad; his search for lost relatives leads him into a series of difficult situations. Drawing on his personal experiences, Guan Liang was able to intimately relate to the many operas that he knew well. Compared with Ding Yanyong and Lin Fengmian, who were also fond of painting opera characters, Guan Liang was more nuanced and thorough in his depictions of the characters' attitudes and psychological states. Indeed, Mei Lanfang, the leading opera star of his generation, mentions Guan Liang in On Opera Paintings, heaping praise on his artworks: "Guan Liang created his own style while also inheriting the finest traditions of Chinese painting. Rather than seeking the form, he emphasized the soul." The value of this endorsement from a great master cannot be understated. After the end of the War of Resistance against Japan, Guan Liang took a teaching position at the National School of Art in Hangzhou, where he was neighbours with the renowned Beijing opera performer Gai Jiaotian. The two bonded over their mutual love for opera, and often met to discuss their respective arts and share their inspirations. Gai also had a strong appreciation of other fields of art, and he often served as Guan Liang's model. Gai was an astute observer of his friend's work: "You have deliberately chosen a moment in which I have yet to strike a pose, when the gong is struck and the character is still springing into position, before he begins to sing. You have captured this dynamic moment in your tableau, and so the character in the painting offers the viewer a beautiful sensation. This method of yours has very vivid results, like a play within a painting." In this painting, Guan Liang himself assumes the role of Silang. His image matches Gai's description: the expression and movement of the character are a coalescence of the climactic moment of the opera. The static canvas manages to encompass a vivid, dynamic story.

Still Life: Tranquil Beauty and Childlike Delight

Still Life (Lot 762), featured in our day auction, was previously included in The Art of Guan Liang, an exhibition hosted by City University of Hong Kong. That exhibition stands as the most complete Guan Liang retrospective to date, bearing testimony to the representative nature of this painting. Still lifes are a tradition of the Western art system, but in terms of the objects portrayed, Still Life is more closely related to Elegant Objects of the Sui Dynasty by Wu Changshuo. The delightful tableau comprises objects associated with good fortune at the beginning of a new year, a depiction intended to suit both refined and popular tastes. Fish, grapes, and pears are respectfully representative of "abundance", "fertility", and "prosperity", a combination that constitutes a happy blessing for collectors.

In his memoirs, Guan Liang cited Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Matisse among his influences, and indeed, the quintessence of these great masters is evident in his still life paintings, which bear the genetic traces of post-Impressionism and Fauvism. In Still Life, Guan Liang adopts a simplified perspective that lends a childlike feel to the tableau. The contours of the objects recall the lines of Chinese calligraphy, reflecting the artist's assimilation of ink painting technique into his work. The originality of Guan Liang's oil painting lies in his interweaving of Chinese and Western art ideas. In contrast to the vivid dynamism he applied to his paintings of people, Guan Liang's still life works pursue "a balance between passionate feelings and solemn order that offers respite and tranquillity to the heart of the viewer".