Lu Yi-fei (b. 1931)
Clear Day Over the Wu Gorge of the Yangtze River
Hanging Scroll, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, 35 x 19 in., (89 x 48 cm.)

Lu Yi-fei, born in the province of Chechiang, is not to be confused with another artist of the same name who was born in 1905.

At the age of twenty-nine, when Lu was a worker at a rubber company in Shanghai, he was chosen on the basis of artistic talent for advanced training in painting at the Shanghai Painting Academy. Lu became a student of Wu Hu-fan (1894-1937) and Lu Yen-shao (1909-1993). Both were landscape painters.

Lu Yi-fei tends to be bolder and more innovative than his teachers. He is particularly skillful in the use of clouds, mist or water to create the void so important in Chinese painting.

Looking at paintings by the three artists I feel that Lu thrived under the influence of Lu Yen-shao and this is noticeable in our example, Clear Day Over the Wu Gorge of the Yangtze River.

This painting was purchased with funds provided by Sharon and Hughes Griffis in 1988.