Beschreibung:

Lot details China, dated 1944. Ink on paper. Mounted as a hanging scroll, with a silk brocade coated paper frame and wooden handles. Superbly painted in the artist’s characteristic simple lines and spontaneous style, full of vitality and vivacity, to depict a cluster of shrimps integrated to the whole scene despite each shrimp displaying distinctive features from the other. Inscriptions: To the right margin, ‘In March of the year Jiashen (corresponding to 1944), the old man Baishi painted it at the age of eighty-three.’ 甲申三月八十三岁白石老人画. Two seals. The reverse inscribed, ‘Qi Baishi – Shrimp‘. Provenance: Czech private collection. Previously sold at European Arts Investments Ltd., Prague, 20 November 2016, lot 90 for CZK 1,800,000 (approx. EUR 110,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and little foxing. The mounting with usual traces of wear and age. Dimensions: Image size 88 x 30 cm, Size incl. frame 202 x 46.5 cm There is a saying in modern China’s painting community that ‘Xu Beihong is famous for painting horses while Qi Baishi is renowned for painting shrimp.’ The shrimp painted by Qi Baishi are very lifelike, vivid and dynamic, fully demonstrating the essence of Chinese ink painting, presenting the elegance, grace, charm and vivacity. His painting of shrimp was an everlasting legacy in Chinese ink painting. Qi Baishi had raised shrimp for several decades, so as to observe them closely. This contributed to his breathtaking paintings of shrimp. Later, people said metaphorically that when Qi Baishi was painting shrimp, the blank rice paper immediately turned into a stream of clean water with shrimp in Qi’s mind. Qi Baishi's early mentor in Beijing, Chen Hengke (1876–1923), counseled him to abandon his technical training and strive for a new expressive freedom through a calligraphic approach to painting. The subsequent transformation of Qi's style is illustrated by this painting. Each crustacean—like a single Chinese character—is formed through the repetition of the same conventionalized pattern of marks. Released from the need to visualize each shrimp separately, Qi thus was free to explore the abstract expressive possibilities of structure, ink tone, and composition and to achieve the direct, childlike spontaneity and naturalness that are hallmarks of his work. Qi Baishi (1864-1957) is one of the world’s most important artists of the 20th century and has received countless honors and awards like no other painter in the People's Republic of China. He began his career as a carpenter, though he taught himself to paint using a manual from the Qin dynasty period. His style, which Qi Baishi developed in the second half of his life, is characterized by a powerful, spontaneous brushstroke. He expanded his subject matter to insects, birds, figures, animals, vegetation, and landscapes, and began to incorporate rich color into his compositions, painting in an ever-freer style. His works are focused on the spiritual, ephemeral, and mystical qualities of the human condition. In 1953, he was elected president of the China Artists Association, and one year later he was elected to the National People’s Congress. Literature comparison: Compare a closely related ink on paper by Qi Baishi titled ‘Cluster of Shrimp,’ in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Compare a closely related ink on paper by Qi Baishi titled ‘Shrimp,’ in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, accession number 1986.267.212. Compare a closely related ink on paper by Qi Baishi titled ‘Shrimps,’ in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum, object number y1954-126. Compare a closely related ink on paper by Qi Baishi titled ‘Shrimps Playing Around,’ in the collection of the Hunan Museum, Changsha. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2014, lot 1536 Price: HKD 2,200,000 or approx. EUR 326,000 convert