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Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA)

Shitang

Wu Guanzhong donated one of his masterpieces Two swallows to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. We are very fortunate to receive A riverside village of Ningbo which is the original sketch of that ink painting, and the amazing story behind its creation was revealed.

When Wu Guanzhong was teaching at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Crafts in the 1980s, he took his students to Luzhi in Suzhou, to do sketching. After the lesson, all the other students returned to Beijing but a postgraduate student named Zhong Shuheng followed him to the Zhoushan Islands to sketch. They left Zhoushan for Ningbo afterwards to catch a train back to Beijing. Seeing that there was still some time before departure, they decided to walk around the neighbourhood. Along the way, Wu Guanzhong was deeply attracted by some waterfront dwellings. He was so thrilled that he made this sketch hastily. When Zhong Shuheng realised that the train was about to leave, she urged him to run back to the station. Wu recalled with a smile that, "Passers-by thought something had happened when they saw us, an old man and a young woman, running madly. The train pulled off the station just after we boarded."

It was in that hurried moment that Two swallows came in shape.

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A riverside village of Ningbo

If you were to sketch anything, what would it be?

Standards for Appreciation and discussion