Background
Qi Baishi was born on January 1, 1864 in Xiangtan, Hunan, China into a peasant family.
齐白石
Qi Baishi was born on January 1, 1864 in Xiangtan, Hunan, China into a peasant family.
Qi's family was very poor and the young boy was unable to obtain normal schooling. When he was six or seven years old, his grandfather, writing with fire tongs in the ashes of the stove, began teaching the boy characters. Aware of his desire to study, his mother carefully saved their meager resources and when he was nine, she managed to send him to the village school, run by her father. In less than a year, however, Baishi was needed on the farm and had to leave the school. Qi also began painting at this time. During his lifetime, his mentors included Hu Qinyuan, Tan Pu and Wu Changshuo.
At the age of twelve, Qi was sent to study under the guidance of a carpenter. At that time, he also showed his creative skills: Baishi cut out animal figures, made snuffboxes and prints, reflecting traditional Chinese subjects.
By the age of twenty-seven, Qi had achieved some success as a portrait painter and was able to support his family solely through his activities as an artist. At the same time, he met several of the leading scholars and artists of the region and with them started to study poetry, painting and seal carving.
At the age of fourty, leaving home for the first time, Baishi embarked on a journey through China, that took him to many of the hallowed scenic spots and sacred mountains of the country. During his travels, he began to develop his interest in the variety of painting, called hsieh-i ("expressing the idea"), a method, different from the more orthodox mode of representation. This journey kept Qi away for 7 years.
When he returned home, he bought and renovated a large old house, where he later moved in to study and to paint. It was at that time, that Baishi began turning sketches, which he produced during his trips, into finished works.
When the Chinese Empire finally collapsed and the Republic of China was born, the painter moved to Beijing. It was an age of great instability and disorder, and Qi was twice forced to flee to Beijing for safety. From about the age of sixty, he settled down in Beijing permanently. In 1927, Baishi started to teach traditional painting at the Beijing Art Academy. Also, it was in Beijing, where his finest period of growth as a painter began. He was now able to gain a much greater familiarity with the works of his noted predecessors, such as Tao-chi and Pa-ta shan-jen of the seventeenth century and Wu Ch'ang-shih and Chao Chih-ch'ien of the nineteenth century. During the Japanese occupation of Beijing from 1937 to 1945, Baishi withdrew from his teaching posts in protest.
As Qi aged, his creativity, freshness and artistic vigor seem only to have grown. Many of his finest works were done in his eighties and nineties.
In 1952, the painter was appointed an Honorary Professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. In 1954, he acted as a deputy of the First National People's Congress. Some time later, in 1957, Qi was named an Honorary President of the Beijing Studio of Traditional Chinese Painting.
Qi Baishi gained prominence for his works, featuring flowers, trees, birds, mice and shrimp. During his lifetime, he received numerous honours and awards. For example, in 1953, the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China conferred upon him the honorable title of "People's Artist". In 1956, the painter received the World Peace Council Prize.
Also, in 1953, Baishi was appointed a chairman of both Chinese Painting Research Society of Beijing and China Artists Association.
His paintings are admired not only by Chinese citizens, but also by art scholars and international collectors. One of Qi's works was sold at the China Guardian 2011 Spring Auctions in Beijing for more than $65 million. Some time later, in 2017, his work, "Twelve Landscape Screens" (1925), set a new record for the highest-selling Chinese painting ever sold at auction for $141 million.
Lotus pond
Likvidambra Taiwan and the cicada
Homes
Wisteria flowers and meyhua
Portrait of a Shih-tao
Melon
Buffalo with calf
Seated Monk
Plowing in the rain
Frogs
Rake
Willows
Lotus
Crabs
Frogs and tadpoles
Frog
Sparrow on a branch
Lychee fruit
Shrimp
Briar
The branch of wisteria
Whisk rice and grasshoppers
Long Melons
A peasant with a rake
A lone sail
Fly a kite
Flowers meyhua
Cypresses
Lychee fruit
Carp
Bindweed, dodder
Drunkard
Cold Night
Chrysanthemum and loquat
A fisherman with a fishing rod
Landscape
Grasshopper
Chrysanthemum
Birds of Paradise
Protein, squirrel and cherries
Lotus and kingfisher
Grapes
Impatiens and butterfly
Wisteria
Persimmon and Moth
Sparrow on a banana leaf
Loquat
Daffodils
Twilight Pines
Orchids
Landscape
Abacus
Large wind
Impatiens and locusts
The man with the comb
Rest after plowing
Butterfly and flowering plum
Bindweed, dodder
Preparation
Lee Tae-Guay (Wayfarer with pumpkin)
Boat
Palm
Bindweed, dodder
Bindweed, dodder
Lamp
Praying Mantis on a branch
The branch of wisteria
Peaches
Sparrows in the sheaf
Pumpkin
Lonely boat
Duck
Trees
Bindweed and grapes
Briar
Bird in a tree
Trees in the studio
Banana Leaf
Peony
Bundles of coins
Shrimp
The chickens are happy sun
Green wine
A lone traveler on a moonlit night
Lotus and dragonfly
Peony
Shrimp
Chrysanthemum and loquat
Fly on a platter
A bird with a white neck
Qi avoided being sucked into China's political upheavals of the first half of the 20th century, which was a smart move, that aided his longevity at the easel.
Quotations:
"Paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness."
"When I cut seals I do not abide by the old rules."
"I suppose future generations will admire our present artists just as much as we admire these men of old. What a pity that I will not be there to see it."
"Vulgar people often describe their seal engraving as something derived from Qin and Han seals. In fact, they have not learned anything."
"I pity this generation’s stupidity, for they do not seem to realize that the Chin and Han artists were human and so are we."
"Such classical artists as Ching-teng, Hsueh-ko and Ta-ti-tzu dared to make bold strokes in their paintings, for which I admire them tremendously."
"We may have our unique qualities too which the men of old would admire too if they could see them."
"My one regret is that I was not born three hundred years ago."
Between 1892 and 1901, Baishi joined the Dragon Hill Poetry Society and the Longshan Poetry Society.
Qi called himself "the rich man of three hundred stone seals". Also, in his spare time, he planted trees and shrubs around the house and kept fish, birds, shrimp, small animals and insects.
Quotes from others about the person
"His paintings are enjoyed by the vulgar and admired by the refined as well." — Anne Shih, a chairwoman of the board at Bowers Museum
In 1881, Qi married Chen Chunjun. Their marriage produced five children: three sons — Qi Liangyuan, Qi Liangfu, Qi Liangkun — and two daughters, whose names are unknown.
In 1919, Chen Chunjun came to Beijing and obtained Hu Baozhu as Qi's concubine. Since then, Qi and Hu lived together in Beijing. Their relationships produced seven children: four sons — Qi Liangchi, Qi Liangyi, Qi Liangnian and Qi Liangmo and three daughters — Qi Lianglian, Qi Lianghuan and Qi Liangzhi.
In 1940, Qi's wife, Chen Chunjun, passed away, and in 1941, he officially married Hu Baozhu.
