Page 132 - Fine Chinese Paintings, Asia Week Christies 2015

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION

505

QI BAISHI (1864-1957) Qi Baishi grew up in the countryside and his rural roots remained an important
PLANTAIN AND GRASSHOPPER source of artistic inspiration throughout his life. He enjoyed painting subjects,
such as plants, birds, and animals, that surrounded him when he was young
Hanging scroll, ink on paper and felt strongly that an artist should not paint anything he had not personally
Signed and with one seal of the artist observed. Qi Baishi played with insects as a child and continued to study them
Further inscribed and signed, with one seal closely as an adult. Some insects he depicted in a highly realistic and detailed
Dated winter, bingzi year (1936) style, while others were painted in a more freehand fashion. Still others combined
52 æ x 12 √ in. (134 x 32.7 cm.) the two techniques. But always most important was to capture the spirit of the
$80,000-100,000 subject. As retold by Lang Shaojun, Qi Baishi remarked: “. . . those meticulous
齊白石 芭蕉蚱蜢圖 立軸 一九三六年作 paintings that fail to catch the spirit are merely works of craftsmen, whereas
題識：白石。 those. . . [that] catch the spirit are indeed works of ‘renowned painters.’” (Yang
又提：此幅有人攜來求添一蟲予即應之。丙子（1936年）冬。 Xiaoneng, Tracing the Past, Drawing the Future: Master Ink Painters in Twentieth-
白石又題。 Century China, Stanford, 2010, p. 168.)
鈐印：白石翁，齊大
注：齊白石出生於湖南省的一戶農民家中。他的畫反對不切實
128 際的空想，主張善於觀察身邊的景物，將靈感取自於生活。他
把這種觀察所得都體現在繪畫當中，筆下花草樹木、蟲魚鳥獸
無不生動傳神、栩栩如生。幼年生活下鄉野的齊白石得以對山
上的昆蟲進行仔細的觀察，將昆蟲描繪得栩栩如生，時而寫
實，時而寫意。這種寫意性與寫實性的並存也完美地體現了齊
白石對捕捉生活細節的熱情。齊白石先生最重要的作畫主旨則
在於對原物觀察仔細異常，并抓住其主要特征進行刻畫，注入
蓬勃生機。據郎紹君回憶，齊白石曾曰，“作畫最難無畫家習
氣，即工匠氣也。”工匠於畫家的區別在於畫家不只追求表面
的形似更求於細節的刻劃，并強調用筆捕捉物象的生命力。
（楊曉寧，《汲古開新：二十世紀中國水墨畫大師》，斯坦福
大學，2010年，第168頁。）