Gao Qifeng

In this Chinese name, the family name is Gao.

Gao Qifeng
高奇峰
Born	Gao Weng (高嵡) 13 June 1889 Panyu County, Guangdong, China
Died	2 November 1933(1933-11-02) (aged 44) Shanghai, China
Movement	Lingnan School
Relatives	Gao Jianfu (brother)

Gao Qifeng (Chinese: 高奇峰; pinyin: Gāo Qí Fēng, 13 June 1889 – 2 November 1933) was a Chinese painter who co-founded the Lingnan School with his brother Gao Jianfu and fellow artist Chen Shuren.

Orphaned at a young age, Gao spent much of his early life following his brother, learning the techniques of Ju Lian before travelling to Tokyo to study western and Japanese painting. While abroad, Gao joined the Tongmenghui, and after he returned to China he published The True Record (真相畫報) to challenge the Qing Dynasty and, later, the Beiyang government. Although offered a position in the new Republic of China, Gao chose to focus on his art. He moved to Guangzhou in 1918, taking a series of teaching positions that culminated with an honourary professorship at Lingnan University in 1925. Falling ill in 1929, Gao left the city for Ersha Island, where he established the Tianfang Studio.

In his painting, Gao blended traditional Chinese approaches with foreign ones, using Japanese techniques for light and shadow as well as western understandings of geometry and perspective. Although he painted landscapes and figures, he is best recognized for his paintings of animals, particularly eagles, lions, and tigers. In his brushwork, he combined the vigour of his brother's technique with the elegance of Chen's. Gao taught numerous students, including Chao Shao-an and Huang Shaoqiang; he was particularly close to Zhang Kunyi, with whom he may have been romantically involved.

Biography

Early life

Gao was born Gao Weng (高嵡) in Yuangang Township, Panyu County, Guangdong, on 13 June 1889. The family was poor, and Gao's father Baoxiang died when Gao was seven years old; his mother followed two years later. Gao was thus orphaned at a young age, relying on his elder siblings for support. One of six brothers, Gao followed his older brother Jianfu, who studied under the painter Ju Lian at his Xiaoyue Qin Pavilion; sources differ as to whether Qifeng studied directly with Ju, or learned his techniques from his brother. From a young age, Qifeng favoured depictions of the natural world – at first flowers and insects, but later expanding to include birds and beasts.

Gao attended a Christian school by the age of fourteen, and later converted to Christianity. In the mid-1900s, he took an apprenticeship with Pastor Wu Shuoqing, painting glass lampshades. He later worked with Wu's brother to open another glass shop. As an adult, he took the courtesy name Qifeng. On his early paintings, Gao used the art name Fei Pu (飞瀑), with Fei Pu Sketching on his seal.

Artistic career

In 1907, Gao travelled to Tokyo, Japan, with his brother to further study art. While Jianfu was enroled at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Gao became a student of Tanaka Raisho; he appears to have also drawn influence from nihonga artists such as Takeuchi Seihō and Hashimoto Kansetsu. Through his studies, Gao learned Western approaches to perspective and sketching, and became familiar with the works of the Kyoto school. He developed a style that blended these various influences, seeking to combine the naturalism of Western art with the lyricism and philosophy of traditional Chinese painting.

The True Record, with a cover illustration by Gao

After returning to China in 1908, the Gao brothers moved to Shanghai. Gao Qifeng became a teacher at the Nanhai Middle School, while also seeking to study psychology and sociology, holding that the truth, goodness, and beauty of art could better address the human condition with insight into society's woes. Teaching art, Gao believed, would bring with it better understandings of ethics and social conditions. In the 1910s, the Gaos also established the Aesthetic Bookstore, a combined gallery, exhibition hall, and publishing house, in the city. Through the bookstore, they sold reproductions of Chinese and western paintings, including their own works.

In Japan, the Gao brothers had joined the Tongmenghui, an organization established to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. After moving to Shanghai, Gao Jianfu arranged the assassinations of several Qing leaders, with the death of Guangdong governor Feng Shan attributed to a painter whom he had recruited; Gao Qifeng may also have been involved in this cell, and fellow revolutionary Wang Jingwei recalled him sleeping soundly in a room full of explosives. After the 1911 Revolution, the brothers were offered positions in the new Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen, but declined.

Instead, the Gao brothers established The True Record (真相畫報, literally Truth Illustrated), a weekly large-format magazine that consisted of pictures, paintings, cartoons, chronicle paintings, essays, reviews, and sketches. This nationalist magazine, subsidized in part by the new government, published seventeen issues between June 1912 and March 1913, with Gao Qifeng as the editor-in-chief. The Gaos believed that pictorials could best "arouse people's patriotic thoughts and support the order of social progress". In essays, the brothers called for the creation of a new approach to art, as well as improvements in art education; other parts of the magazine offered news and social commentary. They also decried the increasingly authoritarian Beiyang government.

Gao – writing with Xie Yingbo and Ma Xiaojin – published an article in 1913 asserting that Provisional President Yuan Shikai had arranged for the assassination of nationalist leader Song Jiaoren. According to the writer Cai Dengshan, Yuan thus issued a warrant for their arrest, and Gao began a self-imposed exile in Japan. This claim is not supported universally among scholars, though Gao is thought to have spent time learning woodblock printing in Japan. As the decade continued and the nascent democracy devolved into corruption and warlordism, Gao Jianfu grew disenchanted with politics; the art critic Li Yuzhong suggests that Qifeng was likely influenced by his brother in this regard.

By the late 1910s, Gao had devoted himself exclusively to painting and teaching. He moved to Guangzhou in 1918 to lead the Art and Printmaking Department at the Class A Industrial School. He also established the Aesthetics Museum on Fuxue West Street. In 1925, Gao was made an honourary professor at Lingnan University in 1925. He was provided land upon which he built a studio, thereafter becoming highly productive.

Through the 1920s, Gao gained increasing recognition for his artwork, and he frequently featured in The Young Companion, a bilingual pictorial magazine published in Shanghai. Prior to the construction of the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Gao was asked to contribute three of his works: Sea Eagle (海鷹), White Horse in the Autumn River (秋江白馬), and Lion (雄獅); during his lifetime, Sun Yat-sen had expressed a fondness for these paintings, none of which has survived.

Later years and death

Gao's tomb at Qixia Mountain

Around 1929, Gao fell ill with pneumonia and removed himself from the city to recover, being admitted to the Zhujiang Nursing Home on Ersha Island in the Pearl River. After a year, Gao was released, choosing to establish the Tianfang Studio on the island to continue his work. There, he taught numerous students, with the seven most famous becoming known as the Tianfeng Seven. However, Gao remained sickly, and his productivity suffered; he only made one trip, to Guilin, to find new inspirations and materials.

In 1933, an exhibition of Chinese art was scheduled in Berlin. Gao was selected to represent as a government representative, and asked to travel to Shanghai for a preliminary meeting. On the ship from Guangzhou, Gao fell ill, and his fellow passenger Ye Gongchuo sought medical attention. Gao was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and after the ship arrived in Shanghai he was brought to Dahua Hospital. He died on 2 November 1933, aged 44. Before his death, he asked that his artworks be donated to museums and that his Tianfeng Pavilion art studio be maintained as the Qifeng Painting Academy.

Per Gao's request, funeral preparations were handled by his student Fan Tchunpi. A memorial service was held a funeral home on Haige Road (now Huashan Road), attended by artists such as Chen Shuren and Ye Gongchuo, as well as politicians such as Wang Jingwei, Cai Yuanpei, and Wu Tiecheng. Other tributes were contributed by Sun Fo, Ju Zheng, and Zhang Ji. Gao's body was subsequently escorted by his student Zhang Kunyi to Guangdong, where he was interred at the Christian Cemetery in Henan; the national government contributed 2,000 yuan to cover expenses.

Zhang continued to push for the state to give Gao recognition. She found support from numerous prominent politicians, including Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, and Yu Youren. They petitioned for Gao to be reinterred closer to the national capital in Nanjing, arguing that he deserved the recognition due to his contributions to the country as well as his artistic skill. This petition was heeded, and Gao was reinterred at Qixia Mountain on 27 December 1936. A mausoleum was erected, as was a marker bearing the inscription "The Tomb of Mr. Gao Qifeng, the Sage of Painting".

Relationships

Together with his brother Jianfu and fellow Ju Lian student Chen Shuren, Gao is recognized as a founder of the Lingnan School of painting. All three shared similar backgrounds, and drew on western influences in their art, believing that synthesis was necessary to preserve Chinese tradition while creating a new "national painting" suited for modern times. Among Gao's students were Zhang Kunyi, as well as Zhou Yifeng, Ye Shaobing, He Qiyuan, Rong Shushi, Huang Shaoqiang, and Chao Shao-an. These students, later known as the Tianfeng Seven as they had studied at the studio, continued to spread the influence of the Lingnan School. Several of Gao's students later settled in Hong Kong and Macau, bringing the school and its teachings to these territories.

Another Gao brother, Jianseng, travelled to Japan in 1911, and as with Qifeng and Jianfu developed a style that blended Japanese, Western, and traditional Chinese art. He died in 1916, having not gained the same prestige. In the 1920s, Gao married Yang Cuixing, with the union producing a daughter named Liandi. The marriage was brief, and Gao's wife took their daughter and left; Cai Dengshan attributes this to Gao devoting himself entirely toward art.

Gao had a close relationship with his student Zhang Kunyi, who has been described as his goddaughter or adopted daughter, but also rumoured to have been his lover; Chen Jianying, writing for the Southern Metropolis Daily, suggests that they had intended to marry in 1933. Gao dedicated several paintings to Zhang. She, meanwhile, lived with him, and after his illness she tended to Gao, handled the housework, and studied art under him. Cai Dengshan writes that, after Gao's death, Zhang was so distraught that she mixed her tears with powder to paint plum blossoms, using her own blood for the sepals; he attributes this to filial piety. Gao Jianfu's student Zheng Danran recalls that the Gao brothers had a falling out, which he attributes to Qifeng's relationship with Zhang. In the 1940s, Zhang arranged for ninety of Gao's works to be brought on a touring exhibition through the United States and Canada.

Analysis

Comparison with other Lingnan founders

Gao Qifeng had many similarities with Gao Jianfu and Chen Shuren, the other founders of the Lingnan School. All three had learned the techniques of Ju Lian, and all three had spent time in Japan learning Japanese and western approaches to painting. Collectively, these artists sought a balance between innovation and tradition, absorbing new ideas while keeping Chinese techniques foundational.

The Roar of the Night (1916); Gao has been noted for his paintings of tigers

However, they also had their own styles, with Chen remarking to Jianfu, "You partake of the strange and marvelous; I of the orthodox; Mr. Qifeng maintains a middle position." Cai Dengshan agrees, writing that, where Jianfu employed a majestic and innovative approach and Chen's style was dignified and elegant, Qifeng balanced the strengths of both of his peers. Similarly, Li notes that Gao blended the vigour of his brother's brushstrokes with the elegance of Chen's. In his study of the Lingnan School, Ralph Croizier notes that, of the three, Gao Qifeng was the most strongly influenced by their Japanese training, with a proclivity for broad ink washes and strong tonal contrasts reminiscent of the Shijō school.

In the market, Gao Qifeng's works tend to fetch higher prices than those of the other Lingnan masters. His Pine and Monkey (松猿图) sold for 1.32 million yuan in 2004 and his Four Landscape Screens (山水四屏) reached 3.982 million Hong Kong dollars at another auction. This may be attributed, at least in part, to the relative paucity of his works compared to those of his longer-lived peers.

Style

Regarding his approach to painting, Gao narrated:

I [...] picked out the finest points of Western art, such as the masterful strokes of the pen, composition, inking, coloring, inspiring background, poetic romance, etc. and applied them to my Chinese techniques. In short, I tried to retain what was exquisite in the Chinese art of painting, and at the same time to adopt the best methods of composition which the world's art schools had to offer, thereby blending the East and the West into a harmonious whole.

As with his peers, Gao drew from diverse sources. His paintings show the influence of Ju Lian and his relative Chao, though not as prominently as in those of Gao Jianfu. He blended traditional Chinese approaches to painting with foreign ones, sketching his subjects before rendering them with ink and colour. His use of light and shadow reflects Japanese tradition, while his understandings of geometry and perspective draw from Western ones. Gao's later works employed a more freehand approach, with the paintings produced after his illness being described as direct and straightforward, with reduced narrative and little diversity in colour. They appear rougher yet more intimate, with meticulous detail giving way to more spontaneous imagery.

Gao favoured vigorous yet delicate brushwork and vivid images, using these primarily to depict flora and fauna in a naturalistic manner; his depictions of eagles, lions, and tigers are particularly celebrated. Li suggests that Gao's angry lions and roaring tigers evoke a "bold and unyielding spirit", while Sun Yat-sen deemed his depictions of animals to reflect a revolutionary spirit. Croizier describes Gao as its premiere painter of tigers, employing a painstaking realism that implies a deep absorption of Meiji-era techniques, though he also showed great skill with large birds.

Landscapes and figures are also attested in Gao's oeuvre. Several works depict moonlit nights and winter snows, which Cai describes as often having a "delicate, graceful, crystal clear, and clean charm." However, pure landscapes are rare, as Gao's images of trees and riverbanks are used as settings for animal subjects. "Boneless" colour washes are common in these works. His figures, meanwhile, are mostly religious, and include Taoist monks and Bodhidharma.

Gallery

• 
  Deer (undated)
• 
  White Horse (undated)
• 
  Two Geese in Reed Fields (1916)
• 
  Snow in the Wu Ravine (1916)
• 
  Monkey on a Pine Tree (1917)
• 
  Pear Blossoms and Two Doves (1927)
• 
  Woodpecker (1927)
• 
  Angry Lion (1927)

Works cited

• "【广东美术百年21大家】高奇峰" [21 Fine Arts Masters from Guangdong in the Past 100 Years: Gao Qifeng] (in Chinese). Guangdong Museum. 24 September 2017. Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
• Andrews, Julia F. (1994). Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07981-6.
• Andrews, Julia F.; Shen, Kuiyi (2012). The Art of Modern China. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23814-5.
• Cai Dengshan (蔡登山) (25 August 2023). "番禺高奇峰：未尽其才的"岭南三杰" [Panyu Gao Qifeng: The "Three Heroes of Lingnan" Who Did Not Use His Talents to Their Fullest]. Dute News (in Chinese). Shenzhen Media Group. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
• Chen Jianying (陈坚盈) (6 April 2009). "张坤仪（1892-1969） 她的一生只为奇峰而画" [Zhang Kunyi (1892–1969) She only painted for Qifeng in her life]. Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024. (via Guangzhou Digital Library)
• Chu, Christina (1998). "The Lingnan School and Its Followers: Radical Innovation in Southern China". In Andrews, Julia Frances; Shen, Kuiyi (eds.). A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-century China. Guggenheim Museum. pp. 40–79. ISBN 978-0-8109-6909-4.
• Croizier, Ralph (2023). Art and Revolution in Modern China: The Lingnan (Cantonese) School of Painting, 1906–1951. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-33696-4.
• Floriani, Giulia Pra (2023). "Photographic Portraits of Leaders of the 1911 Revolution: The Promise of Historical Rupture in the Chinese Republican Press". In Satterthwaite, Tim; Thacker, Andrew (eds.). Magazines and Modern Identities: Global Cultures of the Illustrated Press, 1880–1945. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-350-27865-3.
• Ou Haonian (歐豪年). "畫家介紹─高奇峰先生簡介" [Introduction to the Painters: Gao Qifeng] (in Chinese). Lingnan Fine Arts Museum. Archived from the original on 15 July 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
• Pickowicz, Paul (2013). Liangyou, Kaleidoscopic Modernity and the Shanghai Global Metropolis, 1926-1945. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-26338-3.
• "The Heavenly Breeze: Selected Works of Gao Qifeng and His Disciples". Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
• Wang Jingjing (汪晶晶) (6 November 2008). "高奇峰 谁堪画圣之名 谁享最风光葬礼" [Gao Qifeng: Who Deserves the Title of the 'Painting Saint', Who has the Most Splendid Funeral]. Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024. (via Guangzhou Digital Library)
• Zhu Wanzhang (朱万章) (31 July 2017). "高奇峰《松猿图》：画海横舟 劈波至勇" [Gao Qifeng's "Pine and Monkey": Painting a Boat Crossing the Sea and Bravely Cutting through the Waves]. rmzxb.com.cn (in Chinese). Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2024.

Further reading

• Chu, Christina (1980). The Art of Gao Qifeng. Urban Council Hong Kong.
• 高奇峰先生遺畫集 [Collected Paintings by the Late Gao Qifeng] (in Chinese). Shanghai: Min Xiang. 1935. OCLC 849043342.