Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Landscape for Lin Qingni, 1967, lot 37

Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings, Bonhams
On view this weekend
Sale: Monday, March 21 and online sale through March 24

Reverend Richard Fabian, founder and rector of San Francisco's ecumenical St. Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church, first discovered the compelling beauty of Chinese paintings while majoring in Chinese art at Yale University in the 1960s. Over three decades, he formed a panoramic collection spanning the 200-year development of modern Chinese paintings.

This collection has been generously shared through major exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco on numerous occasions and in the Honolulu Academy of Art in 2007, to name just two institutions. It has also been published in the scholarly, and often very large, catalogues: New Songs on Ancient Tunes: 19th-20th Century Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy from the Richard Fabian Collection and Between the Thunder and the Rain: Chinese Paintings from the Opium Wars to the Cultural Revolution, 1840–1979. The painting illustrated on the cover of New Songs, Immortal Image (Posthumous Portrait of Gao Yong's Wife) by Xugu (1823/24-1896) is included in this sale.

Xugu (1823/24-1896), Immortal Image (Posthumous Portrait of Gao Yong's Wife) , lot 39

Zhang Daqian's Landscape for Qingni in this sale exemplifies Reverend Fabian's central position in the life of San Francisco through the church that he founded and his interest in Chinese art. The artist painted this work in 1967 while visiting the Bay area, and sold it to Tsao Jungying, the owner of Far East Fine Arts, a well established source for important Chinese paintings and knowledge in the Bay area. As noted in Bonhams catalogue, this painting was subsequently exhibited and published locally on several occasions.

This sale marks the fourth section of Bonhams' sale of Reverend Fabian's collection and will be sold live on Monday morning, March 21st and online through March 24th. Read more, click here