PROVENANCE:

Pamela Forrest, Paris
Sotheby's Sale, Taipei, Oct. 20, 1996, lot. 13c

Sanyu was born in Sichuan in 1901 into a rich family. He studied Chinese painting and calligraphy and after Cai Yuanpei's called for a work-study program, Sanyu went to Paris to study the art movement there. He had stepped on a transient road from which he would never return to China. Sanyu's paintings still had a lot of Chinese ink-and-wash characteristics in the early days in Paris. Later his artistic forms became diverse from sketching, watercolor, and oil painting to sculpture. The main subjects of his paintings were nudes, still life, landscape, and fish among others. The early works were mostly in pink and white, and the colors were cozy with little change. He tended to use darker and thicker colors in the middle and late period. The subjects also changed from cozy animals to mother earth. Fish are only a tiny drop in the ocean of the world!

Beginning with tremendous enthusiasm and morale at the beginning of his career, Sanyu struggled on a rough road of art as his family declined. He yearned for his hometown but was unable to return gloriously. He struggled in Paris, lonely without any responses. And his late works show his loneliness so clearly. Sanyu died in a gas poisoning accident in 1966. His struggles, legends and art works left endless yearnings and sighs for the following generations.

This small painting comes from a collector who bought it from Sotheby's a decade ago. Three small red fishes are swimming in the flowing water, so delicate and cute. But some slight melancholy still shows in this small pond of water.