Qi Baishi

Collection of Zhupingan Guan.

Christie's Hong Kong, Fine Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chinese Paintings, 18 January 1988, lot 200.

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來源：

「竹平安館」收藏

香港佳士得，十九至二十世紀中國書畫拍賣，1988年1月18日，編號200

Qi Baishi: Painting, Calligraphy, and Seal, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1973, pl.6-9

Hsiung Shih Art Monthly, issue 204, Hsiung Shih Art Monthly Publishing House, Taipei, February, 1988, p.63

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著錄：

〈齊白石：繪畫‧書法‧印章〉（市政局，香港博物美術館，一九七三年），圖版6-9

〈雄獅美術〉月刊第204期，一九八八年二月，頁063

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Qi Baishi: Painting, Calligraphy, and Seal, 1973

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展覽：

香港博物美術館，〈齊白石：繪畫‧書法‧印章〉，一九七三年

Qi Baishi was quite prolific, but he produced very few multi-part works. The four-panel Flowers and Fruits is a colossal work spanning more than nine feet in height. According to publicly available materials, this is the largest extant multi-panel work by Qi Baishi. Only Chrysanthemums, Gourds, Hibiscus, Pine Tree (1920) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is comparable.

The four-scroll work depicts peaches, loquats and plantain lilies, pomegranates and plumed cockscombs and grapes. The peaches are scrumptious and large – myths have it that one can extend one’s life by a thousand years if the peaches are eaten. The loquats are perfectly round and wonderfully golden, symbolizing enormous wealth. Pomegranate seeds and grapes come in clusters, which imply a wish for abundant offspring. Finally, the plumed cockscombs and plantain lilies stand for advancement in career and growing wealth. The presentation of these symbolic flowers and fruit all together signify robust vitality and offer well-wishes for longevity, endless good fortune, and lasting family prosperity.

The compositions of the four paintings are dense, and the images of grapes and loquats, in particular, seem to completely fill the paper. The paintings have many inklings of the stylistic changes characteristic of the artist’s “late-life transformation” in his sixties, and many of the extant comparable pieces were made specifically for his appreciators. The long inscriptions speak much of Qi Baishi’s temperament; on each scroll, he gave critical opinion on traditional painting and was unafraid of mocking the painstaking brushwork of some of his contemporaries, revealing his undaunted determination to throw out the usual models and establish his own style. The brushwork is free, and the use of ink and colour is uninhibited, but these four paintings also reveal the influence of Xu Wei, Wu Changshuo, and other artists who employed strong, expressive brushstrokes. However, his compositions differ significantly from those of other artists, reflecting a distinctive style. Together, these four paintings have a forceful, spectacular energy. In such a grand work, the composition and brush control are particularly difficult, reflecting the full extent of Qi Baishi’s creative abilities.

Compared to Chrysanthemums, Gourds, Hibiscus, Pine Tree at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the two sets of paintings are highly consistent in size, subject matter, and the content of the inscriptions. Based on other works from the same period, Flowers and Fruits may have been painted in 1920. Some believe that both works were originally part of a single set of eight panels that were later divided in two. The present four panels formed part of the Zhupingan Guan collection, while the painter Fan Tchun-pi came to own the other half. In 1980, Fan Tchun-pi, who was living in Boston, donated the work to the Museum of Fine Arts in memory of her late husband Dr Tsen Tson Ming. The paintings bear a dedication to “Mr. Zhongshan,” which is a reference to Cao Kun, the military leader of the Zhili Clique and President of the Republic of China from 1923 to 1924.

Over the course of his life, Qi Baishi had no shortage of friends in government, but he seldom sought out their friendship. Even if a work of painting or calligraphy was made for a high official, it was part of how he made a living as a professional painter or because he was introduced by a close friend. Cao Kun was politically influential in the early years of Republican China, and he even ruled the country for a time. Some believe that Qi Baishi served as the Cao family tutor in Baoding, while others hold that he was recommended by Xia Shoutian, who was friendly with Cao Kun’s aides. From his extant oeuvre, we know that Qi created many pieces of painting and calligraphy for Cao Kun, including many outstanding pieces.

On the tenth day of the fifth lunar month in 1920, Qi Baishi dedicated the six-foot Flowers in Four Panels to Hu Egong with the inscription “Of the paintings I have made in my lifetime, these four are the fullest.” Just a few months later, he painted this set of four scrolls, which surpass Flowers in Four Panels in terms of dimensions, brushwork, composition, and density of painting.

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註：齊白石筆下甚勤，惟組屏作品數量不夥。〈繁花碩果〉四屏，逾九尺鉅幅，就公開資料顯示，乃傳世尺寸最弘組屏，與之相同者，僅見波士頓美術館所藏齊白石一九二〇年〈花果四屏〉。

本組四幅分別繪千年桃實、枇杷玉簪、石榴鷄冠、葡萄串垂。桃實碩大如斗，食之可長壽千年；古有「樹繁碧玉葉，柯疊黃金丸」句形容枇杷，其果實渾圓，金黃燦爛，象徵「財源滾滾」；石榴、葡萄結子纍纍，喻「多子多孫」；而鷄冠花與玉簪，則具「加官進爵」、「高升富貴」之意。碩果繁花共呈一堂，張揚著旺盛的生命力，寓意多子多壽，福澤綿延不絕。

四幅構圖皆稠密飽滿，尤「葡萄」、「枇杷」二幀，幾乎填塞整幅畫面，此乃白石衰年變法之初的顯著特點，傳世所見多為賞音者作，如一九二〇年六月為梅蘭芳作〈佳果〉扇、〈牽牛花〉，同年貽郭葆生〈枇杷荔枝〉。「壽桃」幅將重心踞中上，底部虛空，於豐饒中見疏朗之致。桃實碩大殷紅，三五成簇，幾欲壓斷枝頭。老幹虬枝儘見於天地，既突出重點，又將畫意延伸。「枇杷」樹幹頂天立地，氣貫如虹，金果叢叢簇簇，葉長如耳，筋脈清晰，斑駁陸離迷人眼眸。「石榴鷄冠」在佈局處理上，則上下分割，石榴垂挂向下，鷄冠花昂首怒放，營造均衡呼應效果。「葡萄」密密匝匝，幾不透風，枝蔓交錯如龍蛇走，葡萄珠串緊凑扎實，沉甸甸地懸墜在枝蔓上。葡萄不點色，或略敷墨赭，於茂葉中如水晶明珠，更顯剔透。各題材雖皆自成篇章，惟合綴一堂，且為巨幛，其配搭熱鬧和諧，既富視覺張力，又見輕重、虛實之對比，節奏起伏，繁密卻無一味壅塞之弊，極見巧思。

題識内容，頗具白石個性特質。每幅以長題論畫，抒發性情灼見，諷時人作畫筆墨刻意，有畫家習氣，言語中惟服膺徐渭、石濤、八大山人、李鱓、孟麗堂等野逸派畫家。白石初到京師，遭受畫壇保守派冷遇及排擠，此亦可視爲他對自身處境之回應，既不欲「與時手雷同」，又忌模仿前人，彰顯「掃除凡格，自稱家法」之決心。是組四幅筆法恣放，色墨淋漓，仍流露徐渭、吳昌碩等大寫意筆墨之影響，而經營佈局，則與諸家迥異，已呈自我面貌。圈果勾葉處處悉心，毫不紊亂，於宏偉中兼富生趣，正是其追求之無「畫家習氣」也。通觀四屏，氣勢雄渾，蔚爲壯觀。經營如此皇皇鉅製，佈局、控筆殊為不易，彰顯盛年白石强健的創作才能，委為傾力之製。

對照波士頓美術館之〈花果四屏〉，二者不論從尺幅，還是題材、款識内容，皆具高度一致性。另參考同期作品，本組四屏，可推約創作於一九二〇年。有一説二者本為一套八屏，後分散為二，本組入藏竹平安館，後者則歸於畫家方君璧。一九八〇年，居住於波士頓的方氏為紀念先夫曾仲鳴，將之捐獻予當地美術館，畫上具「仲珊先生」上款，即直系軍閥、後任大總統的曹錕。

齊白石生平不乏官宦之友，他卻鮮與官家結交。縱有書畫為顯宦高官作，亦不外職業畫家謀生之計，或礙於好友相薦。曹錕於民初政壇勢力雄厚，權傾一時，有謂白石曾到保定任曹家西席，或因時為曹錕幕僚之好友夏壽田引薦。白石〈庚申日記〉載，十月初三，夏氏遣人接其到保定游玩，十月十五日，「得人謝金」，至於何人則語焉不詳，只稱「羞其年將六十，猶受人憐」，如此難與人言説，此人似為曹錕。一般認爲這是他為曹錕作畫最早的一次，但波士頓美術館〈花果四屏〉署款九月九日重陽節，則在此之前，時曹錕甫履任直魯豫巡閱使，以喜氣祥瑞的鉅屏奉贈，雖未點名，無不洋溢敬賀晉升之意涵。惟白石以「仲珊先生」稱之，乃今僅見，語帶矜持，或因初次交集之故。隨著往來漸頻，曹錕職務擢升，以至登臨大位，稱謂亦隨之轉易。

從傳世作品可見，齊白石在之後數年，為曹錕寫有不少書畫，且俱非尋常之作。一九二一年五月，上款稱「仲珊使帥」的絹本工筆草蟲十六開冊〈廣豳風圖冊〉；一九二二年，題材極爲稀見的〈雲龍圖〉；上款稱「虎威上將軍」人物畫〈漢關壯繆像〉、〈宋岳武穆像〉；上款稱「大總統」之〈瓔珞長垂〉，不一而足，而落款往往自署「布衣齊璜」，足見畫家始終保有的自持。

如上作品，足以代表齊白石在該階段的最佳水準，在面貌多元中穩步變法，屢見新風，呈現不斷超越自我之進境。一九二〇年五月初十，齊白石寫奉知己胡鄂公之六尺〈花卉四屏〉，並題曰「余生平所作之畫，最稠密以此四幅為最。」惟僅數月之後，即已創作出本幅四屏，無論從尺幅、筆墨，還是佈局的構思、滿密程度皆更勝一籌！

參考資料：

〈齊白石的世界〉，郎紹君著（臺北，羲之堂文化出社事業有限公司，二○○二年四月）

一九二〇年贈曹錕〈花果四屏〉可參見〈鴉片戰爭後之中國畫〉英文版（美國，波士頓美術館，一九八〇年），封面及封底

一九二一年贈曹錕〈廣豳風圖〉可參見〈看齊白石畫〉，王方宇、許芥昱著（臺北，藝術圖書公司，一九七九年五月），圖版13至19

一九二二年贈曹錕〈雲龍圖〉可參見香港蘇富比，二〇一二年四月，中國書畫拍賣，編號1186

署「大總統」〈瓔珞長垂〉可參見香港蘇富比，二〇一二年四月，中國書畫拍賣，編號1282

為胡鄂公作〈花卉四屏〉可參見〈張宗憲珍藏中國近代書畫 ─ 齊白石作品集〉（香港蘇富比有限公司，二○○二年六月），圖版4

為梅蘭芳作〈佳果〉扇可參見香港蘇富比，二〇〇七年四月，中國書畫拍賣，編號970

〈牽牛花〉可參見香港蘇富比，二〇〇二年十月，中國書畫拍賣，編號73

為郭葆生作〈枇杷荔枝〉可參見香港蘇富比，二〇〇六年四月，中國書畫拍賣，編號5