Patrick Procktor RA
Flower Bridge, Kweilin - 1980
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Aquatint
Signed and numbered from the edition of 75 impressions plus 15 artist's proofs
60.1 x 44.7 cm (inches: 23¾ x 17½.)
Sidey 92
Plate 8 from 'The China Series'
Procktor was the first modern European artist to visit China in 1980 since the Cultural Revolution. He had long been fascinated by the Chinese scrolls in the British Museum and the pervasive influence of Oriental Art, and secured a permit to travel freely in China with a guide and a driver. Leaving England in February 1980 he spent a month in Hong Kong, and then went on to mainland China for 8 weeks. His search for the picturesque landscape took him to Guangzhou (formerly Canton), Guilin (formerly Kweilin), notably for its dramatic backcloth of conical limestone mountains), Hangchow, Scoochow (best remaining Chinese gardens), Wushi, Nanking and Beijing. The trip produced fifty-nine watercolours.
This high perspective view of the covered Flower Bridge in Kweilin was drawn in pale washes of blue and pink. In translation into aquatint it has become a striking tonal arrangement of yellow sky and water. In the distance one can see the celebrated calligraphic inscription carved into one of the surrounding mountains.
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