2014.525: Green Mountains

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.525

People

Hsia I-fu (Xia Yifu) 夏一夫, Chinese (Shandong province, China 1925 - 2016 Taiwan)

Title

Green Mountains

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, wall scroll

Date

probably 1990s

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/319275

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Vertical wall scroll; ink and color on paper, with artist’s signature and seal

Dimensions

painting proper: 80 x 64 cm (31 1/2 x 25 3/16 in.)
Framed: 102.87 x 85.09 x 5.08 cm (40 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Lower right, black ink: Yifu hau (Chinese brush-written characters followed by a red seal reading "Yifu")
• inscription: signature brush-written in black ink at lower left: "Yifu hua" (painted by Yifu)
• seal: artist's square red relief seal, following signature: : "Yifu"

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Xia Yifu, Taiwan (1990s-by 2004?), gift or sold?; to Chu-tsing Li, Lawrence, Kansas (by 2004?-2012), gift; to his son B U.K. Li, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012-2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014.

Footnotes:
1. Dr. Chu-tsing Li (1920-2014)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Chu-tsing Li Collection, Gift of B U.K. Li in memory of Chu-tsing Li, Yao-wen Kwang Li, and Teri Ho Li

Copyright

© Xia Yifu (Hsia I-fu)

Accession Year

2014

Object Number

2014.525

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Colored washes evoke the idyllic blue-and-green landscapes of classical Chinese painting with a luminous clarity, yet the hue is untraditional. The varied tones of green give the work a more Western watercolor style, but the brushwork is unmistakably Chinese. An artist without formal training in painting and calligraphy, Xia Yifu developed an individual technique that could capture the monumentality of traditional landscapes.
Chu-tsing Li said of Xia’s work: “We can see a reflection of the artist’s own inner nature, as well as the embodiment of the intricacies of nature, the desire for transcendence and release from mortal life, and a realm in which everything, including one’s self, is forgotten.”

Publication History

• Robert D. Mowry and Claudia Brown, A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), cat. 39

Exhibition History

• A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/2007 - 01/27/2008; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 06/28/2008 - 09/14/2008; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 10/11/2008 - 01/04/2009; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, 02/11/2009 - 05/24/2009

Verification Level