A riverside village of Ningbo
Description
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.
Object Information
Date Created:
1980
Local ID:
FA2018.0210
Collection:
The Paintings and Personal Archives of Wu Guanzhong
Place of Creation/Discovery:
Hong Kong
Dimensions:
23.55 x 32.8 cm
Creator(s):
Wu Guanzhong
Materials:
Horizontal scroll, Pen and ink on paper
Period:
20th Century
Classification:
Sketches
Rights:
Hong Kong Museum of Art
