"Little brother, do you like paintings like this?"
When Chen Wenzhe came back to his senses after reading it, Qi Hongxing spoke with a smile on his face.
Who hasn't been young? If he doesn't show off his youth and make people think he is old and immoral, he will definitely show it openly for everyone to appreciate.
"The painting is good!" Chen Wenzhe didn't hide anything. He really liked it and the painting was really good.
Chen Wenzhe remembers very clearly that the auction price of the "2008-Shendu" was 18 million, including commission, it was more than 20 million.
Now that I think about it, how could such a precious painting end up in such a small shop so easily?
However, even if it is not that one, the value of this one is not low!
The same theme, the same work with the same intention, how come the price is so low?
Maybe with the bonus of the previous one, this one is more expensive? So how could he not like it?
"There is another painting below. It also depicts a beautiful woman. Do you want to take a look? It's a bit unworthy of its name!"
With that said, Qi Hongxing opened up the picture of a woman playing mahjong, revealing a picture of a beauty underneath.
This is really a beauty, and her name is Miss Jenny, but she is not a foreigner, but a Chinese in ancient costume.
Seeing this oil painting, Chen Wenzhe was a little speechless.
When "2008-Shendu" was auctioned, it seemed that another sky-high price oil painting was also auctioned at that auction, and the name seemed to be "Miss Jenny"!
This portrait was carefully created by Xu Beihong in 1939, commissioned by Blanchard, the Belgian deputy consul in Ligapo, and painted for his friend Jenny.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Xu Beihong actively advocated the war of resistance and opposed compromise and surrender.
He once traveled around Southeast Asia, selling works for charity, and donated all the proceeds of US$100,000 to the cause of the Anti-Japanese War in the motherland.
You should know, how big a figure was one hundred thousand dollars at that time?
Miss Jenny is a socialite from Xingzhou, originally from Guangdong Province. She cares about her motherland and actively donates money to support the motherland's war of resistance.
In the painting, Miss Jenny is wearing a cheongsam and sitting in a wicker chair. The warm sunshine is scattered on her face from the window. Her face is quiet, her posture is dignified and elegant, and her manners are generous, which fully demonstrates the gentle and quiet beauty of oriental women.
The painter uses Western realistic techniques to outline the characteristics of the characters, while also gaining insight into the inner world of the characters and showing the character's temperament and essence.
It can be said that this is the one with the best use of color among all Xu Beihong's oil paintings.
He used French Impressionist techniques to handle light and shadow effects very delicately and skillfully, reaching the pinnacle among Chinese Western painting painters of the same generation.
Moreover, for such a large painting, there is no alteration, and the brushwork is very decisive and smooth, which is very rare.
In addition to the attainments in painting skills, the story behind this portrait is also the reason why people flock to it.
In the 1930s, when the war was raging, Xu Beihong took his paintings and his collection of calligraphy and painting masterpieces from past dynasties to Nanyang, and held Anti-Japanese War fundraising exhibitions in Li Jiapo and other places.
The exhibition was quite successful, and all the donations were used as pensions for the orphans of the Fifth Route Army's victims during the Anti-Japanese War.
"This one has a legacy from Master Xu Beihong. It's just an oil painting, and it depicts a semi-native woman. It's a bit like that!"
What is that? What is that?
Is it because I got a perm? Or is it because I wore a cheongsam?
Or is it with the legs crossed? Chen Wenzhe is a little confused.
Master Xu Beihong can't paint such a woman? Or can he not paint oil paintings?
Chen Wenzhe looked at the painting carefully. He was also afraid of making a mistake and bought a copy. That would be funny.
Looking carefully at the details of this oil painting, no matter how you look at it, you feel that it is well done.
In this painting, Xu Beihong slightly deflected Miss Jenny's face to the side, which basically maintained the relatively frontal portrait of the character and avoided the rigid image caused by the absolute "frontal law".
The hair style combed back highlights the integrity of the character’s face;
In the depiction of facial features, the relationship between the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth is the main axis;
In terms of facial structure, the subtle and rich image beauty of oriental women is presented by emphasizing the character's forehead, cheekbones, and chin.
Xu Beihong successfully shaped Miss Jenny into an image sitting in a rocking chair with her right leg raised.
And this "woman in a rocking chair" is actually a very classic style of the painter.
Prior to this, Xu Beihong had used this style to depict his wife Jiang Biwei and his beloved student Sun Duoci, but these works were mostly sketches or ink and color studies on paper.
The origin of this style can still be traced back to the creations of Western classical portraiture masters, but through Xu Beihong's repeated practice, the painter has transformed Western-style sofas or armchairs into Eastern-style bamboo and rattan rocking chairs.
Then, the flashy posture of Western women is fixed, the body is slightly turned sideways, and the hands are placed on the legs to create a subtle Eastern look.
In "Portrait of Miss Jenny", Xu Beihong further developed this style into some kind of "cocked feet" variation.
This conscious variation not only conforms to Miss Jenny's "social butterfly" identity, but also emphasizes the free and open cultural character of Nanyang, which is full of Chinese and foreign influences;
At the same time, around this change, Xu Beihong enhanced the richness and pertinence of the style expression through structural shaping, clothing pattern characterization, etc.
No matter why this painting appeared here, or whether it was the high-priced auction work he had heard about before, the painting in front of him was the real thing anyway.
At that time, it seemed that the painting was sold for 50 million yuan. If transaction taxes and other things were included, it would be almost 60 million yuan.
Now nearly 10 years later, the price of this painting will only be higher.
It’s a bit strange that a famous painting worth half a billion yuan appears in this small shop!
However, these two paintings seem to have really flowed into Chang'an City.
Xu Beihong's famous painting "Portrait of Miss Jenny" is Xu Beihong's largest Anti-Japanese War themed oil painting. It was indeed purchased by a mysterious Chang'an buyer.
The time when "Miss Jenny" was filmed was probably during the Jiade Autumn Festival in 2011.
At that time, the starting price was 38 million yuan, the transaction price was 50 million yuan, and the total amount including commission was 58 million yuan.
And it was at this Poly Autumn Auction that the buyer who had invested a huge amount of money to purchase "Miss Jenny" also bought the masterpiece "2008-Shendu".
Chen Wenzhe must have remembered correctly. It was the low ebb of the antique market at that time, so he remembered the transaction records of that period very clearly.
At that time, a painting of Xu Beihong's horse was taken away for more than 7 million yuan, and a painting of Huang Zhou's figure was purchased for more than 3 million yuan.
In fact, China's art market has been in a "deceleration period" since the autumn of 2011.
The autumn auction of 2012 was even considered an absolute “low period”.
Many people in the industry should remember what happened during this period.