Trois Lettrés

The three male characters of the painting could be the Song literati Su Shi, his father Su Xun and brother Su Zhe, known collectively as the Three Su. “Reconstruction of a certain beautiful story from history” was a source of inspiration for Fu’s painting activity during the 1940’s. Fu invoked history to seek out the enduring virtues of figures from the past and cited poems to encourage meditation on legends, as a vehicle to express loyalty to and sorrow for China. The expressive power lay less in high-spirited heroism than in the romantic sadness the images convey, which heightens the viewer’s attention to the human psychological drama.
Fu depicts this scene with free, spontaneous brushwork, rendering the figures with swift, jagged outlines, pale ink tones, and dark accents for details of the robe, with the pale orange rocks contrasting the solemnity of the protagonists.