ATTRIBUTED TO CUI RUZHUO (1944 - )

Narcissus

Ink and colour on paper, mounted as a hanging scroll

68cm high, 45cm wide.

Provenance: a private collection formed in the 1990s.

崔如琢 (傳) 水仙

設色紙本 立軸圖

來源：英國私人收藏。

Note: Cui Ruzhuo (b.1944) began his artistic practice studying under the painter and calligrapher Li Kuchan (1899-1983), who himself studied under the masterful eyes of Xu Beihong (1895–1953) Qi Baishi (1864–1957), and specialised in bird and flower paintings that employed the spontaneous xieyi (‘sketching the idea’) style. After teaching at the Academy of Arts and Design in Beijing, Cui relocated to the United States in 1981, returning to China in the mid-1990s to mentor doctoral students at the Chinese National Academy of Art.

Cui became a master of landscape finger painting, channelling a free and spontaneous energy through deft stroke of his fingers. In this painting of narcissus and bamboo we see a wide spectrum of texture and weight; the delicately-painted narcissus flowers blossoming from rigid stems, the diluted ink wash of the rockwork overlaid with the bold and imposing bamboo – Cui skilfully plays with the viewer’s sense of depth using different techniques, resulting in works of wide-ranging scales, from studies of small bunches of flowers to soaring, expansive polyptychs depicting vast mountain ranges.