"In October 1988…, Mitsuo Yamazaki, the president of Seibu Department Stores suggested to me, ‘We will hold the Paris Exposition in Tokyo this t.mes next year, and we'd like to invite you to create a series of paintings for the Expo, using the Parisian landscapes as the theme. We plan to invite you and your wife come to Paris together. What do you say?’ Mr. Yamazaki might not have expected that his words touched me deeply - When I was young, I studied in Paris. This is the place where I became enthralled by Western art … Forty years later, I am invited to go back and paint Paris - a new Paris - with my eyes imbued with Eastern aesthetics; I feel bittersweet, cause it is more just simply depicting the actual scenery. Eventually I took his suggestion and went to Paris in spring this year (1989)."
In March and April of 1989, at the invitation of Mitsuo Yamazaki, the president of Seibu Department Store of Japan, Wu Guanzhong went to Paris with his wife to create artworks for a Paris-themed exposition in Japan. In May of the same year, the artist finished more than forty Paris-themed oil and ink paintings in Beijing. The Seine River II was also painted in this period. According to The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong Vol. IX, the artist said of this one-month Paris trip, "Today, I analyze the fashionable Paris of my school t.mes with the eyes of a Chinese painter…I intently pursue memories of Paris - my hometown and the foreign land I've been longing for." Therefore, this trip is of profound importance to the artist.
Wu Guanzhong once called the Seine River "the most beautiful river by the impressionists". This theme ran through his entire artistic career from his boyhood. In an one-week Easter holiday when he studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, he rowed to the Seine River for sketch with a French classmate. However, the Seine in the countryside became a vast raging torrent, and the boat was capsized. The two had soaked in the river for fifty minutes before they were rescued. This experience undoubtedly left deep impression on the river for him. Forty years later, when Wu visited this place again in the chilly spring t.mes , what he saw was the Seine River in downtown Paris. The peaceful river and beautiful scenery were quite different from those when he was young, mirroring his decades of creation career as well as the boundless love for the city expressed by the landscape paintings. The 1980s is the period when Wu dedicated himself to ink paintings. Although the present work depicts scenery of the Seine River in Paris, its arrangement echoes the classic composition of "one river and two sides"of the Yuan artist Ni Zan to express his inner feelings. The Seine River II shows the artistic conception of ink and freehand paintings through oil paintings, revealing the charm of traditional Chinese painting. Another oil painting Colourful Mountains (Lot 2812) produced in the 1980s will appear in this season's evening sale, which is also an ideal practice of the artist's view of "nationalization of oil painting" and "modernization of traditional Chinese painting".
This work was exhibited at Seibu Gallery, Tokyo (Expressions on Paris by Wu Guanzhong) in 1989, and at Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong (Odysessy: Wu Guanzhong) in 1990. Apart from exhibition collects ions, this work is also recorded in The Complete Works of Wu Guanzhong vol. III , published by Hunan Replica Handbags s Publishing House in 2007, and Birth of Wu Guanzhong Workspublished by the People's Replica Handbags s Publishing House, featuring both academic and collects ive value.
The Seine River II was created in the artist's one-month trip to Paris in 1989. More than 30 pieces of oil paintings from this period appeared at auctions in Asia: A Fountain with the same size of this piece fetched 9,610,000 HKD in Hong Kong in December 2020; Paris Montmartre (V) with the similar size of this work fetched 16,325,000 HKD in 2019. Versailles fetched 18,580,000HKD at Replica Shoes 's 20th Century Chinese Art Sale in Hong Kong in 2011. Now The Seine River II makes its debut at the auction with attractive estimate.
「1988年10月…西武社長山崎光雄先生向我提出了建議：明年此時，我們將在東京舉辦巴黎博覽會，想請你畫一批巴黎風景作為展題參展，先請您和夫人去一趟巴黎，尊意如何？山崎先生恐並未料到他這一構想深深打動了我的心弦。我年輕時在巴黎留學，如飢似渴吸取西方藝術的營養，並陶醉其間。…四十多年歲月逝去，人漸老，今以東方的眼和手，回頭來畫巴黎—新巴黎，感觸良多，豈止繪事。我接受了山崎先生的建議，於今年 (1989年)春寒料峭中抵達巴黎。」
闊別四十載重遊巴黎 舊貌新顏百感交織
1989年3至4月，吳冠中應日本西武百貨店社長山崎光雄的邀請，為在東瀛舉行以巴黎為題材之展覽創作，偕夫人赴巴黎寫生；同年五月，藝術家在北京完成以巴黎為題材的油畫及水墨畫四十餘幅，本作《塞納河（二）》即誕生於此創作時期。據《吳冠中全集IX》記載，吳冠中對此趟為期一個月的巴黎採風之旅曾有此自述：「今天我以中國畫家的眼來剖析學生時代的洋巴黎…一心一意，全神貫注追捕既是故鄉又是異邦的巴黎，要解開我的巴黎情結。」由此可知，此趟旅程在藝術家而言意義深遠。
吳冠中曾稱塞納河為「印象派畫家們筆底最美麗的河流」，此一主題亦貫穿藝術家自少年時代起始的寫生生涯：年輕時的吳冠中在巴黎美術學院學藝期間，於某年復活節的一周例假，與當時一位法國同學撐起小船前往塞納河寫生，唯郊野的塞納河寬闊浩蕩，急速的水流造成翻船，二人在水中泡了五十分鐘後獲救，此深刻經歷無疑令藝術家對塞納河留下無比深刻的印象。四十年後，藝術家同樣在春寒料峭的時候重遊故地，眼前是巴黎市內的塞納河，平靜怡人的風景與少年時所經歷的截然不同，猶如藝術家數十年來創作生涯的映照，不難想像藝術家寄寓眼前風景的無限情思。八〇年代正值吳冠中致力水墨創作之時，本作寫的雖是巴黎塞納河景致，卻呼應元代倪瓚「一河兩岸」之經典構圖，抒發胸中逸氣。《塞納河（二）》展現吳冠中以油畫突顯水墨寫意之境，國畫神韻盡然流露其中。同登本季晚拍的另一八〇年代油畫作品《彩山》（拍品編號2812），即見同樣「油畫民族化」及「國畫現代化」的理想實踐。
元 倪瓚 《容膝齋圖》台北故宮博物院藏
本作展歷豐富，曾出展於1989年東京西武百貨店舉行的〈吳冠中畫巴黎畫展〉及1990年香港萬玉堂畫廊舉行的巡迴展覽〈行到水源處〉，除展覽畫冊外，本作亦收錄於2007年湖南美術出版社出版之《吳冠中全集III》及2008年北京人民美術出版社之《吳冠中畫作誕生記》，兼具學術及收藏價值。
《塞納河（二）》誕生於吳冠中在1989年遠赴巴黎的寫生之旅，此趟旅程僅為期一個月，期間所創作的油畫作品，僅30餘幅曾登上亞洲拍場：與本作尺幅相同的《噴泉》於2020年以9,610,000 港幣成交；與本作尺幅相近的《巴黎蒙馬特 ( 五)》，則於2019年以16,325,000港幣成交。《凡爾賽一角》更早在2011年已於香港蘇富比二十世紀中國藝術拍賣以18,580,000港幣成交。《塞納河（二）》如今首登拍場，足見估價吸引。