旅意遣悶 (Lu yi qian men, "Travelling for entertainment"), leporello album of ink paintings on paper, signed Zhang Daqian (張大千, Chang Dai-chien, 1899-1983), 1965, comprising 14 pages painted on both sides, revealing varied scenes alternating between flowers, animals, mushrooms, figures and landscapes,18x12 cm

The cover of the album, in shades of blue, is decorated with flowers, wan and geometric motifs. It bears the title of the album, 旅意遣悶 (Lu yi qian men, "Travelling for entertainment"), the signature 爰 (Yuan) and the seal 張爰 (Zhang Yuan). The album is dedicated to 子杰四弟 (Zijie si di), nickname of Guo Youshou (Kuo Yu-Shou, 郭有守, 1901-1978).

The album has a protective case inscribed 乙已年七月旅比[?][?] (Yiyi nian qiyue lü bi [?][?] ). It mentions the "seventh month of the year of the wooden snake", which may correspond to 1965, the year in which Li Ai Vee and Zhang Daqian met.

The album features a variety of scenes alternating between flowers, animals, mushrooms, figures and landscapes, each spread over two pages, with signatures and seals. One side reveals the following paintings, each extending over two pages:

- a mountain landscape, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千 (Daqian);

- another landscape with mountain and trees, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a flower, signed 大千居士 爰 (Daqian jushi Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a mountain landscape; signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a buffalo with a child holding a branch with a bird on it, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千 (Daqian);

- mushrooms, signed 大千居士 爰 (Daqian jushi Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- bamboos, signed 大千張 爰 (Daqian Zhang Yuan), seals 大千(Daqian) and 張爰 (Zhang Yuan).

The other side shows the following paintings, each also spanning two pages:

- a bird, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a cicada on a branch, signed 大千居士 爰 (Daqian jushi Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a flower, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- fish, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- a figure holding a staff, accompanied by an inscription bearing the same date as on the protective box, 乙已年七月 (Yiyi nian qiyue, 1965), signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 張大千長年大吉又日利 (Zhang Daqian chang nian da ji you ri li). Further mention to 四弟子杰 (Si di Zijie), Guo Zijie.

- a flower, signed 爰 (Yuan), seal 大千(Daqian);

- pines, signed 大千居士 爰 (Daqian jushi Yuan), seals 大千(Daqian) and 己卯 (Ji Mao)

Provenance: collection of Li Ai Vee (1932-2021), a former student of Zhang Daqian. Yu-Lan chalet

張大千（1899-1983）

《旅意遣悶》

設色紙本 山水, 花, 動物, 水果和人物冊 冊頁十四開

一九六五年

款識: 爰, 大千居士, 大千張

鈐印 : 大千, 張爰, 張大千長年大吉又日利, 己卯

贈予 郭子杰 (郭有守)

Zhang Daqian (張大千, Chang Dai-chien, 1899-1983)

Zhang Daqian (張大千, Chang Dai-chien, 1899-1983), one of the most renowned Chinese painters of the 20th century, mastered the thousand and one subtleties of ink painting, refreshing a medium that had been rooted in Chinese tradition for over two thousand years. Over the course of a prolific and eclectic career spanning more than sixty years, this internationally acclaimed artist produced more than five hundred paintings a year, the most famous being his landscape paintings in ‘splashed ink’ (pocai), verging on abstraction. He was the subject of numerous international exhibitions during his lifetime, and some of his works are held in renowned institutions such as the Musée Cernuschi in Paris, the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2011, Zhang Daqian even became the most expensive artist sold at auction in the world that year, surpassing Pablo Picasso. In addition to his career as a painter, Zhang Daqian was also a great art collector and connoisseur.

Having travelled extensively around the world, Zhang Daqian visited Switzerlandduring the second half of the 1950s and the 1960s. It was there in 1965 that he met Li Ai Vee, who subsequently became his pupil. The Swiss landscape was a great source of inspiration for Zhang Daqian during his many visits. Indeed, several of his paintings have the mysterious splendours of the Alps as their subject. Our leporello album ‘Journey to Switzerland’ (lot 40) features a Swiss landscape painted in the traditional Chinese style. In the year he met Li Ai Vee, the artist also painted a Swiss mountain landscape, which he dedicated to her (Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4 April 2011, lot no. 1110). In addition to these traditionally painted landscapes, the painter produced a series of Swiss landscapes using his splashed ink technique. The album ‘Travelling for entertainment’ (lot 41) takes us on a visual journey through a variety of scenes alternating between flowers, animals, mushrooms, people and landscapes, all painted using the thousand and one subtle colours of black ink. In the same year, Zhang Daqian also produced a similar painting of a bird on a bamboo branch, dedicated to Li Aiwei (Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 4 May 1995, lot no. 1003).

Below the title of our two albums (as well as on the protective box of the album ‘Journey to Switzerland’), we can see the name 子杰 (Zijie). This name refers to Doctor Guo Youshou (Kuo Yu-Shou, 郭有守 , 1901-1978), also known as Guo Zijie, Minister of Education in Sichuan and Director of UNESCO's Education Department. Guo Youshou was an emblematic figure in the promotion of Chinese artists in Europe (especially in Paris), particularly Zhang Daqian, whom he considered a brother, both coming from the province of Sichuan. It was with him that Zhang Daqian travelled to Europe from the second half of the 1950s and into the 1960s to exhibit his work. Guo Youshou played a key role in helping the painter to promote his work, thanks to his mastery of foreign languages and his position in international circles. Through Guo Youshou's influence, Li Ai Vee met Zhang Daqian and became his pupil. A painting by Zhang Daqian from the Li Ai Vee collection, marked Guo Zijie and dated 1965, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2010, lot no. 2648.

Collection of Li Ai Vee

Piguet auction house is honoured to present the second part of the collection of Li Ai Vee ( 李 爱维 , born Eva Anita Li, 1932-2021), a Chinese-German painter living in Switzerland and a fervent collector of Asian art, mainly Chinese and Japanese.

Born in Shanghai, Li Ai Vee was introduced to painting as a child by her mother, herself an artist, and went on to become a pupil of prestigious painters such as Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) and Lu Yifei (1908-1997) in the 1950s. She then spent several years in Japan, where she was a disciple of the Zen master Rinzai Yamada Mumon Rôshi (1900-1988). There, in 1954, she was selected to paint several bamboos on the sliding doors of the Hiroshima Memorial.

In 1958, Li Ai Vee left China and settled in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1965, she met Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-Chien, 1899-1983), and became a pupil of this internationally renowned painter. That same year, she was awarded the Medal of the City of Paris in recognition of her art.

In 1973, Li Ai Vee moved to Blonay to the chalet ‘Yu-Lan’ ( 玉蘭 , ‘Magnolia’), surrounded by a vast bamboo forest and guarded by carved Foo lions. It was there that she painted, surrounded by her extensive collection of Asian art, which she has enriched over the years. Li Ai Vee has put together a rich and varied collection of objects, combining monochrome vases, paintings and albums, scholarly objects, carved jades and divinities from the Asian pantheon, all of which she has combined with her passion for art.

The entire collection can be found by entering the keyword ‘Li Ai Vee’ in the search bar on our website.

The third and fourth parts of Li Ai Vee's collection will be presented in our future sales in March 2025 and June 2025.