Hailan Gong "Dreams of Venice" Signed Serigraph LX

Updated September 18, 2026

Hailan Gong (Chinese, b. 1956), Dreams of Venice, circa 1990, signed and numbered serigraph / screenprint on Coventry Rag paper, inscribed LXXXI/C lower left, identifying this impression as number 81 from the Roman-numeral edition of 100. Sheet dimensions: 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm). The title, medium, dimensions and circa 1990 dating are independently documented for this composition, while other recorded examples bearing Roman-numeral edition numbers confirm the existence of the edition of 100.<br><br>One of Hailan Gong's most immediately recognizable Venetian compositions, Dreams of Venice transforms the familiar imagery of Italy's legendary lagoon city into a richly saturated realm of reverie, romance and theatrical fantasy. Rather than presenting Venice as a literal architectural record, Gong evokes the city through sensation: monumental domes and campanile-like towers dissolve into a luminous blue atmosphere, gondolas drift across glasslike water, and reflected passages of cobalt, ultramarine, turquoise, emerald and gold merge architecture, sky and canal into a single immersive field of color.<br><br>The composition is anchored dramatically at lower left by a gondola carrying an intimate group of figures. A luminous reclining woman emerges from the surrounding darkness with near-theatrical intensity, attended by shadowed companions and a red-capped gondolier. Across the water, a sweeping balustraded terrace curves into the scene, populated by elongated dancing and theatrical figures, while the distant Venetian skyline rises almost spectrally through the blue haze. Gong's juxtaposition of intimate human drama with expansive architectural fantasy gives the image both narrative intrigue and considerable visual depth.<br><br>The work can be understood as a contemporary reinterpretation of the centuries-old Venetian veduta tradition. Where earlier artists celebrated Venice through topographical precision, Gong approaches it as an imagined emotional landscape - a city suspended between history and dream. Broken reflections, vertical strokes of color and deliberately softened architectural forms create a fluid transition between solid structure and water, while the restrained flashes of yellow, green, violet and rose intensify the predominance of blue and lend the composition its distinctive nocturnal luminosity.<br><br>Gong's biography records formal training in ancient Chinese and classical art before the development of an international career spanning Asia, Europe and the United States. He relocated to the United States in 1990, and his mature work is particularly associated with romantic figurative subjects, dramatic color and a synthesis of Eastern and Western artistic traditions. Dreams of Venice is especially effective within that context: one of Western art's most enduring subjects is filtered through Gong's highly personal vocabulary of expressive color, elegant figures and imaginative theatrical space.<br><br>Signed lower left and numbere

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