FROM THE COLLECTION OF LUO JIALUN (LOTS 1407-1408)Luo Jialun (1897-1969) wielded significant influence in the fields of politics and education in 20th-century China, as well as being an accomplished poet, author and collector. He became active in politics during his studies at Fudan School in Shanghai. In 1917, while studying foreign literature at Peking University, Luo Jialun advocated literary reform and served as an editor of the student periodical, The Renaissance. These efforts culminated in his role as a student leader in the May 4th Movement. He spent several years abroad and studied in the United States, London, Berlin, and Paris. After Luo returned to China, he joined the Nationalist government and was appointed as deputy head of instruction at the Central Party Institute in Nanjing in 1927. He served as president of Tsinghua University between 1928 and 1930. In 1932 he was appointed president of National Central University in Nanjing, serving until 1941. During this time, he led the university to safety in Chongqing in the midst of the Sino-Japanese War. Luo served as the Republic of China’s ambassador to India from 1947 to 1949, before returning to Taiwan and assuming additional education related official duties. Luo acquired an extensive collection of Chinese paintings throughout his life. His family later donated many of his Classical Chinese paintings to the National Palace Museum in Taipei, as documented in the museum catalogue A Collection of Chinese Paintings Donated by Ms. Zhang Weizhen (wife of Luo Jialun).

ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)

Three Friends

Price realised HKD 4,900,000

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HKD 1,500,000 – HKD 2,000,000

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ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)

Three Friends

Price realised HKD 4,900,000

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ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983)
Three Friends
Handscroll, ink and colour on paper
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist
Dated summer, renyin year (1962)
Dedicated to Zhixi (Luo Jialun, 1897-1969)
Titleslip inscribed by Luo Jialun
NOTE :
The recipient of the painting is Zhixi. Mianzhong, the courtesy name of Zha Liangzhao (1897-1982) is also mentioned in the inscription. Zha went to study at the University of Chicago and then Columbia University after graduating from Tsinghua College, a preparatory school for Chinese students to study in the United States. During the course of his study, he became friends with Luo Jialun a notable educator and historian. Zha worked as a guest lecturer at the University of New Delhi in India in the late 1940s, when Luo was an ambassador to India for the Republican Government. Meanwhile, because of the changing political climate in China, Zhang Daqian went all over the world. He embarked on his journey from Hong Kong in 1950, held an exhibition in New Delhi and stayed in Darjeeling for nearly a year. As the three were all in New Delhi, Luo Jialun invited Zhang Daqian and Zha Liangzhao to a party in the Chinese Embassy in India, when Zhang painted Three Friends as a gift to Luo Jialun. After 12 years, the three reunited in Japan. Unfortunately, the painting was already lost. Zhang Daqian, therefore, recreated the painting and added three old men into the picture, not only to symbolise the enduring characteristics of the three with pine trees, bamboos and plum blossoms, but also to commemorate their friendship that lasted over time. As a treasured piece in Luo Jialun’s private collection, it has vividly recorded the friendship of the three intellectuals in the modern era.
38.5 x 143 cm. (15 1/8 x 56 ¼ in.)

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