PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist's family by the present owner

ILLUSTRATED:
The Paintings of Huang Chun-Pi, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1984, p.65

In the competitive world of Chinese Paintings, Huang Chun-pi championed, along with Pu Hsin-yu and Chang Da-Chien, as one of the top three Taiwanese painters.

At his early age, Huang followed a strict apprenticeship with Li Yao-Ping (1883-1937), a famous painter in Guangdong, under the Lingnan school of painting. The ideology promoted by Li and this School is to revive the essence of Chinese classical paintings and to stand firmly against Western practices. Thus, in his early practice before arriving in Taiwan, Huang's paintings were inclined
to meticulously follow the Chinese traditional painterly style in his landscape, portrait and flower and bird painting genres. With the increasing number of visits to the majestic mountains and valleys and the encounters with art fellows, Huang began to refine his belief and skills which made him a well-acclaimed artist.

Since his arrival in Taiwan, Huang devoted his career in art education and influenced deeply in the development of Taiwanese modern art. With his numerous travel around the globe, Huang transformed his traditional art skills and focused on depicting the grandiosity of nature. Prof. Fu Shen once praised the artist, “Huang has a rich knowledge of both Chinese and Western art. His art gathers the essence of both Northern and Southern art schools. Under Huang's proficient painterly skills and his strong observation of nature,
his landscape paintings created a unique Taiwanese style in art development of the late 20th Century.”

Figure in a Mountainous Landscape by the same artist was sold at Ravenel (Lot 638 in 2017 Spring Sale). The year of the painting was deemed to be 1960, based on the poetry and the style of painting. The painting featured three scholars hiking after the rain and watching the waterfalls from the sky. In terms of structure, layers of mountains lead the eye from afar, and tonality enriches the layering. The whole painting was highlighted by two dark trees on the cliff. This structure opens up to the mountainous view with a traditional
style, highlighting the majestic waterfall. This painting is undoubtedly the work of Huang Chun-pi at the peak of his career. This work was
eventually sold for TWD 1,920,000.

Created in 1975, this painting Landscape at Sunset (Lot 619) depicts the richness of the autumn hills at sunset. A sensual pleasure of landscape is elevated as the eye moves from the gentle slopes and cottages on the lower left, through to the waterfall on the top right
of the painting. As the mist of the waterfall uncovers the distant mountains, the red maple trees scattered in the mountains echoing with the diffused glow of the setting sun.

As the caption writes,
“Heavy mist envelopes the pleasure of nature,
As the greenery highlights the soggy hills,
Autumn highlighted by the lofty cliffs,
As the red maples dance under the gentle beams of the setting sun.”

Echoing with the caption, the painting unveils the blissful enjoyment
of a Chinese literati in a scholarly manner.