Asian Art Online

Property from the collection of Xiwen (Yiling) Wang, thence by descent.

Wang Xiwen (also known as Wang Yiling) was born in 1881 in Neijiang, Sichuan. In his early years, he studied in Japan, where he befriended fellow Sichuan native and renowned painter Zhang Daqian. Upon returning to China, he was invited by Zhou Zuomin to join the Kincheng Banking Corporation (Jincheng Yinhang), serving successively as branch manager in Hankou, Beijing, and Tianjin. A prominent banker during the Republican Period, Wang was also a passionate collector of calligraphy, paintings, and rubbings, assembling a collection that remains partially preserved today in the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Library.

In his later years, Wang settled in Hong Kong, while his children dispersed to Taiwan, Brazil, and the United States. Through these family networks, portions of the collection have appeared at auction in recent years. In April 2022, Sotheby’s Hong Kong featured two works by Zhang Daqian (lots 3170 and 3171) from the Wang collection in their Classical Chinese Painting auction; both were gifted by Zhang to Wang’s second son, Wang Yixian, during his time at the famed Garden of Eight Virtues (Bade Yuan) in Brazil. Wang Yixian resided nearby and assisted Zhang in shipping and exporting his paintings. In May 2024, Heffel Auctions in Toronto offered another Zhang painting from a different branch of the Wang family. In October 2024, at Duoyunxuan Auction in Shanghai, lots 1453–1527 also came from the Wang family, featuring Shanghai School masters and rubbings that had been returned to the family after being seized during the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s.

The present collection, comprising paintings and books from the Wang family, is consigned by the grandchildren.

來源：

銀行家王錫文（1881-1955）舊藏。

王錫文字毅靈、毅厂，1882年生於四川內江。早年留學日本，因此結識同在東瀛的四川老鄉張大千，歸國后，受周作民邀請加入金城銀行，先後在漢口、北京、天津等地擔任分行經理。銀行家是民國時期重要的收藏團體，王錫文喜好碑帖書畫，部分藏品現存上海博物館及上海圖書館。晚年定居香港，子女分散臺灣、巴西、北美。是以近年拍場時見其舊藏，如2022年4月香港蘇富比中國書畫專場3170、3171號張大千《松崖白練》、《白蓮》，即爲大千巴西“八德園”時期贈予王錫文次子王宜憲的作品，此子僑居巴西摩詰，與大千比鄰，曾助大千運送、出口畫作，有世交之誼。2024年5月多倫多Heffel拍賣的大千《松崖高逸》則來自另一位王家後人。2024年10月朵雲軒秋拍1453-1527號拍品也是王家舊藏，以海派名家和舊拓爲主，係八十年代退賠。