WANG SU (1794-1877)
Flower and Rock
Horizontal scroll, ink and colour on paper
33.5 x 138 cm. (13 ¹⁄₄ x 54 ³⁄₈ in.)
Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist
Dedicated to Xuezhuang
One collector's seal

Chen Lifu (1900-2001), whose sobriquet is Zuyan, was born in Wuxing, Zhejiang Province. As the founder of modern higher education in China, a prominent member of the Nationalist Government and the Kuomintang, and the most trusted advisor to Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), Chen Lifu's place in the history of twentieth-century China is clear for all to see. Christie's is honoured to present a collection of paintings and calligraphy by Chen Lifu and Sun Luqing (1899-1992), many of which accompanied Chen Lifu as he travelled across the oceans to witness the life of this legendary figure.

An adherent to the Confucian philosophy and its core values, Chen Lifu spent the later years of his life promoting the Chinese culture and Chinese medicine. A prolific author and scholar, he published more than thirty books and edited and translated many more, in subjects ranging from Mencius philosophy, the Four Confucian Classics, land law, his own memoir, to the history of science and the history of agriculture in China, and education. Although fiercely private about his family life, in his memoir Chen Lifu nevertheless expressed his devotion and admiration for his wife of sixty-six years, Sun Luqing. A graduate of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Sun Luqing studied traditional Chinese painting. The couple have collaborated on many works together, where Sun's painting was inscribed by Chen, a lifelong and accomplished calligrapher.