拍品描述：
款识：玉 SANYU （右下）
衣淑凡着，《常玉素描与水彩全集》，台北，2014年，编号D2046，电子附录第87页 （图版）
Drawings of Sanyu
Among the prolific oeuvre of Sanyu, his drawings on paper stand out as compelling exemplars of his stunning creativity in its most lighthearted and uninhibited form. From his first attempts during his study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1923, Sanyu was notably drawn to the practice of drawing. For him, it was not merely a fundamental step for mastering oil painting; the very idea of drawing from life attracted him as a new way of seeing, experiencing, and expressing various painterly subjects. By 1929, Sanyu had created over two thousands of such pieces.
The majority of extant drawings today feature female nudes—the most representative subject matter of Sanyu. They were created either during drawing sessions at La Grande Chaumière or as preparatory drawings before larger canvas works. Exhibiting a wide array of human bodies in varying poses and from different angles, they showcase vividly the curiosity and excitement of Sanyu as he forayed into this new territory of Western painting. Particularly iconic is the exaggerated depiction of the leg, described by Sanyu specialist Rita Wong as the ‘cosmic leg in the words of the poet Xu Zhimo, which characterises almost every piece of his female nudes and epitomises the pictorial freedom Sanyu achieved.i In addition to nudes, Sanyu created figure drawings that observe and capture fragments of his flâneur Parisian life, which depicted his fellow students at La Grande Chaumière or people he encountered in café and parks around the city. These works serve as both demonstrations of Sanyu’s persistent creative impulse and precious historical records of the vibrancy and liveliness at the cultural forefront of this modernist metropolis.
It is also in his drawings that one can find Sanyu’s immediate response to various emerging trends in art at this art historical turning point. Palpable in Sanyu’s innovative forms are influences of Fauvism, Surrealism and even photography, which were revolutionising the Parisian art scene in the 1920s. More significantly, in his inquiries into new aesthetic paradigms, Sanyu creatively brought in Chinese ink and brush. A closer look into the details often reveals Sanyu’s skillful manipulation that utilises diverse linear textures, achieved by varying combinations of wet and dry, speedy and slow brushstrokes. With these techniques absorbed from Chinese calligraphy and literati painting, Sanyu imbued a unique sense of flexibility and smoothness, moving beyond the rigid convention of Western academic realism. These art-historical undercurrents have made Sanyu’s drawings a stylistic playground, from which he developed a singular approach that traverses the boundary between tradition and modernity, and between West and East.
The Habart Collection
Phillips is honoured to present five drawings of Sanyu from the Collection of Doris & Gilles Habart, by descent from Michel Habart. After Sanyu’s death in 1966, drawings discovered in his atelier were sent to the Hotel Drouot for auction. Michel Habart was among the earliest collectors to discover this corpus of works, particularly drawn to Sanyu’s unique blend of Chinese sensibility and modernist minimalism. His daughter, Doris Habart, recalls vividly, ‘I remember the beaming face of my father when he came home with his treasure under his arm… The simplicity of the line, and moving sensuality that emanated from these 1920s women evoked comments from the people who saw them. We made parallels between Chinese calligraphy and these innumerable nudes. My father saw in these works inspiration from Matisse, Maillol sculptures and Henry Moore. With his calligrapher’s brush creating a tender line, Sanyu had indeed invented something unique.’ ii
The art-historical significance of Michel Habart’s collection is well-documented through a rich history of scholarly publications. In SANYU, His Life and Complete Works in Oil, Rita Wong notes specifically Habart’s key role in reconstructing the life and art of Sanyu, including his exchanges with Sanyu’s friend Dahan and later friendship with Antonine Chen.iii In the 1980s, Habart and Chen organised two exhibitions aiming to reintroduce this forgotten artist—first at Printmaker’s Gallery in Taipei in 1982 and later at Galerie l’Orient in 1984. Building upon Habart’s collection, Chen completed his monograph Une Chanson Nostalgique, which became the first book focused on Sanyu. These early efforts have laid important groundwork for today’s rediscovery of Sanyu and the rethinking of his profound artistic legacy.
Michel Habart (centre) with Antoine Chen (right) and his wife in the exhibition of the Sanyu drawings collection of Michel Habart at Galerie l’Orient in Paris in 1984.
Image: Courtesy Doris & Gilles Habart
i Xu Zhimo, quoted in Rita Wong, Sanyu: Catalogue Raisonné, Drawings and Watercolors, Taipei, 2014, p. 41.
ii Doris Habart, quoted in Rita Wong, Sanyu: Catalogue Raisonné, Drawings and Watercolors, Taipei, 2014, p. 4.
iii Rita Wong, Sanyu: His Life and Complete Works in Oil: Volume One: His Life, Berlin, 2024, pp. 202-203
来源:
巴黎，德鲁奥拍卖中心
巴黎，米谢‧阿拔赫收藏
上述藏家家属继承作品
文学:
衣淑凡着，《常玉素描与水彩全集》，台北，2014年，编号D2046，电子附录第87页 （图版）
水墨 纸本
创作年代:
此作品已登记于立青文教基金会，档案编号为D2046。