Mr. Harding
Harding (1923-2003) was an outstanding watercolor painter and art educator among the second generation of Western painters in China, who served as a first-class artist of the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute, a member of the China Artists Association, and a director of the Shanghai Artists Association.
Harding: Pushing the creation of watercolor paintings in China to a new peak
Chen Zhiqiang
Bringing workers ten thousand hearts 1963
Harding's grandfather, Ha Shaofu, was a famous calligrapher, painter and connoisseur of cultural relics in Shanghai at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China, who initiated the establishment of the "Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Research Society" as early as the first year of the Qing Dynasty (1909), and was the second president of the Xiling Printing Society after Wu Changshuo. Harding was influenced by his family's education from an early age and studied Chinese painting with his grandfather. In 1942, he entered the "Chong Ren Studio" and studied watercolor painting and oil painting under the sculptor Mr. Zhang Chong Ren. Due to his talent and hard work, Harding stood out among many students, became a proud disciple of Mr. Zhang, and was hired as an assistant teacher in Chong Ren Studio. In the late 1940s, In his 20s, Harding was already a well-known young portrait painter in Shanghai, and was successively hired as a tutor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an art teacher at Shanghai Aurora Girls' High School.
Suzhou River Consulate 1957
In the early 1950s, when the Shanghai Art College and the Suzhou Art College and the Shanghai School of Fine Arts were moved away from Shanghai one after another, and there was a gap in Shanghai art education, Harding opened the "Harding Studio" and trained many art talents for the country, including many famous painters such as Dong Lianbao, Wang Jieyin, Yu Xiaofu, Cai Jiangbai, Xu Chunzhong, Wang Dawen and other famous painters who later became famous in the art world. At the same time, he also wrote two monographs, "How to Draw Portraits" and "How to Draw Pencil Drawings", which filled the gap in China's basic art education textbooks at that time and influenced and helped generations of young students to embark on the road of learning painting.
Flowers on the Pamir Plateau 1989
In 1960, Harding was employed by the newly established Shanghai Municipal Academy of Fine Arts, bishop of the school's preparatory department of watercolor painting, line drawing, undergraduate Chinese painting department of drawing and secondary school class creation class, during the school often with students to go to the countryside factory, while working, teaching, while creating, the results are remarkable. Famous painters Chen Yifei, Xia Baoyuan, Wei Jingshan, Qiu Ruimin, Fang Shicong, Zhang Peiji, Wang Jieyin, Chen Peirong, etc. were all influenced or influenced by him.
Horse Racing Festival Series-b 1991
After "wg", Harding was hired as a painter in the Oil Painting and Sculpture Creation Room of the Shanghai Academy of Painting (now the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute), and his artistic life was reborn.
The Girl on the Rock 1993
Since 1978, Harding has gone to Shenjiamen Fishing Port, Gezhouba Construction Site and Ethnic Minority Areas such as Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang to sketch and experience life. In Tibet, he was also invited to hold art training classes, which introduced a new concept of art creation to Tibetan areas.
Black bottle with pike crab 1962
The unique geographical features, ethnic customs and cultural landscapes of remote areas have expanded Harding's horizons and provided him with new creative themes. On the basis of giving full play to the transparency, fluency, lightness and simplicity of watercolor paintings, he also used innovative techniques to enhance the rich sense of color and solemn expression of the picture, created his own personality characteristics, and created many huge watercolor paintings that expressed major themes, surpassing the general performance effect of watercolor paintings and pushing the creation of watercolor paintings in China to a new peak.
Moon flower 1980
Here are the works and life photos of Mr. Li:
In 1947, Harding and Zhang Chongren
In 1979, Harding (first from right) joined Zhang Chongren (center) and Xiao Feng (first from left) in Zhejiang