Chionh Ke Hu
鳌東
S/No 4731
Date of Burial 19.5.2604
VARIOUS OWNERS
各方藏家
LOT 34
Zhang Shanzi (1882 - 1940)
Portrait of Mr Chionh Kong Ming
Sold for AU$115,900 inc. premium
Zhang Shanzi (1882 - 1940)
Portrait of Mr Chionh Kong Ming
Ink and colour on paper, framed
Inscribed and signed Zhang Shanzi, with three seals of the artist
Dated yihai year (1935)
176.0 x 95.0cm
Footnotes
Provenance:
Commissioned by Mr Chionh Ke Hu (1889 - 1944) in honour of his late father, Chionh Kong Ming (1829 – 1905)
thence by descent
Private collection, Perth
Mr Chionh Ke Hu was a rubber merchant and one of the founding directors of the United Chinese Bank Singapore, later renamed the United Overseas Bank. So prominent was the family that until the 1960s there was a road in Singapore named after Mr Chionh, Chionh Ke Hu Park, near where the family residence was.
In Februrary 1935, Zhang Shanzi visited Singapore for a group exhibition. An extended show of paintings, poems, and photography by the Yellow Mountain Society from its domestic arms in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, the exhibition introduced the grand landscapes of the Yellow Mountain to audiences outside China. It was very well received both domestically and in Singapore, and supported by prominent businessmen and political figures in Southeast Asia. Mr Chionh Ke Hu, due to his social and professional reputation, was undoubtedly a key benefactor of the show.
The exhibition included numerous works by Zhang, some featuring the pine trees of the Yellow Mountain, rendered in the same realistic manner shown in the 'Portrait of Mr Chionh Kong Ming'. This realism was a departure from the more traditional handling techniques in Chinese brushwork which had been defined by broader, more gestural mark making. Laden with symbolism, our subject is framed by the finely detailed bough of the pine, itself a symbol for longevity as well as majesty within Chinese painting. Slender bamboo is shown moving slightly to an unseen breeze in the background, a metaphor for humbleness due to its hollow core. In setting the subject against the pine tree and the bamboo, Mr Chionh Ke Hu pays tribute to his late father with great reverence and yearning - a manifestation of filial piety, a virtue promulgated by Confucian.
Driving China's revolution towards a modern society during the 1930s was a heightened sense of patriotism. Later in 1937, Zhang Shanzi created a series of portraits of great historical figures named The Song of Righteousness, in support of the war against Japanese occupation. The depiction of Yan Hui (521 - 481BC), a Confucius disciple, especially the handling of the subjects' flowing gowns, itself a metonymy for the morality of the subject, traces its genesis in this fine portrait. This tribute to Mr Chionh Kong Ming, an artistic embodiment of a traditional philosophy with a modern brush, is truly a masterpiece of its time.
張善孖 蔣公君屋像 設色紙本 鏡框 一九三五年作
款識：君屋蔣公，閩同安人。弱冠隨父北上葫蘆島經商，中落返里，精思幼習，經史子集崇八則，家寒教子效伏勝，安貧學顏回，壽大衍有期而優遊淨土。公冡君驥甫年未冠，隻身南溟，歷盡辛勞，備嘗艱苦，謹守遺訓，脩己安人，尊德達道，行諸扵世人，非亦不強同，我行我素，名其居以自況操計，然持籌事有心得，左右逢源，家遂裕性，爽直凣興，學公益慈善諸端，力所當為，力無不為。蓋本張四維，脩五注，尚辭讓，去爭奪，克己而愛人，戒欺而務實。遵行不背裕後，光前芝蘭玉樹，庭堦茂茂，其樂融融。驥甫兄倩予追繢行樂圖紀實，籍表人子之報親恩於無窮矣。蜀人張善子，乙亥（1935）春扵星島。
鈐印：張、善子
傳承：
蔣驥甫（1889 - 1944）先生舊藏，聘張善孖为其先父蒋君屋（1829 – 1905）製像，直接购于画家
遂由後人繼承
珀斯私人珍藏
蔣驥甫，福建同安華僑。青年隻身南渡新加坡，由進出口起家，後於陳嘉庚合創橡膠園，苦心經驗而發跡。1935更聯合新、馬兩地著名華商創大華銀行，並任董事。早年孫中山於新加坡立同盟會，蔣公亦大力資助。
1935年2月中，張善孖赴新加坡巡展黃山書畫社成員詩書畫三絕合集，時間長達月余。該展當時已於京滬杭等地引起熱烈反響，巡展新加坡，旨在向國際推廣黃山勝景，得到當時國內及新加坡媒體大力推廣，並南洋商政權要鼎立資助。蔣公乃商界巨擎，定於該展傾囊而資。
黃山勝景書畫攝影作品中，張氏對黃山巨鬆的寫實描繪，在此肖像背景中亦能領略。此種以水墨寫實的技法乃大陸三十年代改革國畫中借鑑西方油畫寫實主義的一個突破。畫中人物以松、竹為背景，暗喻人物高風亮節，可見蔣公對其先父的無限推崇及懷念，孝心可嘉。
張氏亦追隨孫中山，是國民黨元老之一。1937年抗戰初期，張氏創作了一組以歷史上民族英雄為原本的《正氣歌像傳》，聲援正義。其中顏常山像中表現的衣襟飄然的氣韻風骨，似在本蔣公像中已隱然有因。而為人物編寫小傳的模式，亦同本幅。想必畫家與藏家志同道合，惺惺相惜，故立像不惜筆墨尺幅，極盡工筆能事，唯妙唯肖。