XU CAO (1899-1961)

PORTRAIT OF ZHONG KUI

A Chinese scroll painting, ink and colour on paper, inscribed and signed fu zi tian lai Yan Sun Xu Cao with an artist's seal which reads Xu Cao, 57cm x 31.5cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Lin Wen Zhi (d.1994) acquired in the 1950s and thence by descent.

Lin was the oldest son of a wealthy and influential family, he studied at the University of Shanghai during the 1920s, he was sent from Shanghai to Singapore to help in his uncle's business. After the Second World War, he went on to start his own businesses, then he re-established the family tea business in his late 70s.