Feng Chaoran (1882-1954), who is given name is “Jiong”, and who styled himself as “Jiege”, and later “Shende”. He was a representative of the Shanghai School of painting, a master of comprehensive techniques, with profound attainments in landscapes, birds and flowers, figures and other painting disciplines from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. Originally from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, he was born in Songjiang and came to Shanghai after the 1911 Revolution. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was praised as one of the “Four Artists of Shanghai” and “Three Wu and One Feng” in Shanghai School. After the founding of PRC, he became a researcher at Research Institute of Ethnic Art in the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a director of the East China Artists Association.
The painting Drunken Li Bai is a representative work of Feng Chaoran’s antique works, with smooth lines, accurate shapes, elegant coloring, clean brushwork and ink, mainly dyed, without heavy chaffing. Judging from the brushwork, coloring and the mark “Jinchang Tang Yin Poetry and Painting”, this work is modeled after the brushwork of Tang Bohu in Feng Chaoran’s frame. The painting Drunken Li Bai draws on the classic story of Li Bai’s drunken inscription of a poem to poke fun at Gao Lishi, and is a masterful portrayal of the reckless and unrestrained image of the retired immortal Li Bai. The work expresses Li Bai’s defiance of the powerful and the noble despite his plebeian position, and praises his bold and heroic spirit.
Such an emotion is also in line with the painter’s own sentiments. During the liberation of Shanghai during the Xinhai Revolution, Feng was instrumental in raising funds for the Shanghai Revolutionary Party. During the Sino-Japanese War, Feng Chaoran supported his brother’s resignation from the Wang Jingwei regime. During the occupation of Shanghai, in order to prevent the enemy and hypocrites from asking for paintings, he deliberately raised the fees. One of the traitors, despite the high price, continued to pester him, and Feng had no choice but to hastily wield the brush, and in his inscription he likened the enemy to tigers and wolves. Feng’s high qualities of painting and noble personal characters were renowned for a long time.