Auction Information

Description

Qi Baishi (January 1, 1864 – September 16, 1957) was born in Xingziwu Xingdoutang, Baishipu, Xiangtan, Changsha Prefecture, Hunan Province (now Xiangtan, Hunan Province). Originally named Chunzhi, with the courtesy name Weiqing and the nickname Lanting. At the age of 27, he changed his name to Huang, with the courtesy name Biansheng and the courtesy name Baishi. Qi Baishi is famous for painting shrimp, which has almost become his "symbol" and "symbol" Qi Baishi's hometown has a starry pond, where there are many grass shrimp. The young Baishi often plays by the pond and has been associated with shrimp ever since. In his later years, he once painted "The Picture of Fishing for Shrimp in Childhood" and wrote a poem on the painting: "Fifty years ago, he was a little baby fishing for reed shrimp with cotton as bait. Today, when he painted this head all white, he remembered that the calamus was this flower." There was also a note: "When I was young, I tried fishing for large shrimp with cotton as bait. The shrimp's feet clamped their bait, and the fishing line rose up. The shrimp followed the fishing line and came out of the water, but the pliers were particularly puzzling.". Just focus on eating, forget about landing! Before the age of 60, Qi Baishi's shrimp mainly imitated ancient times and learned the techniques of painting shrimp from Ba Dashan Ren, Li Futang, Zheng Banqiao, and others. At the age of 62, Qi Baishi believed that his experience with shrimp was not profound enough and required long-term careful observation and sketching. He kept several live shrimp in the water bowl of the painting for a long time. Qi Baishi carefully observes them many times a day, observing their shape, their swimming posture in the water, and often uses a pen to touch them, observing the various postures of shrimp jumping. At the age of 66, under his observation, he collected all the movements of the shrimp, such as moving forward and backward, swimming quickly and slowly, and even fighting, jumping, etc., at the end of the pen, and added changes to the changes in the brush and ink, making the shrimp body transparent. When drawing the head of the shrimp, he first used a small spoon to scoop water and drip it onto the ink filled belly of the pen, giving it a hard shell like feeling. Through observation, he emphasized the arch of the third section of the abdomen, which well demonstrated the curvature and bouncing posture of the shrimp. As the jumping of the shrimp all relied on the abdomen, drawing the shrimp became more vivid. He made the front end of the shrimp pliers thicker and more powerful, reducing the number of shrimp retreating from 10 to 8. At the age of 68, the abdomen and legs of the shrimp continued to be reduced from 8 to 6, and the shrimp's eyes changed from small black dots to horizontal dots. This was an exaggeration to better express the shrimp's expression, but it was used appropriately, and everyone didn't think it was strange. The most amazing thing is that he added a thick stroke of ink to the light ink on the head and chest of the shrimp, which immediately increased the transparency and made the taste of Chinese painting even stronger. At the age of 78, he was still constantly improving to make it perfect, and at this point, the shrimp he drew was cut back to 5. The shrimp painted after the age of 80 is already lifelike and lifelike. (His many shrimp paintings are also the most valuable after the age of 80) In fact, behind every painting, there are many stories. No one's success is so easy. Even though Qi Baishi is a world-renowned cultural figure and a modern painting master, he has been very simple throughout his life. The stories of Qi Baishi's frugality and accumulation of wealth are constantly portrayed in the public, portraying him as a petty miser. At first, he studied carving and woodworking, then became a painter and grew up in a rural area. Therefore, his artistic style is characterized by a strong rural atmosphere and a simple peasant consciousness. Qi Baishi (January 11864-Septem)