Ba-ren-ji-shui by Xu Beihong 300×62 cm 1938

On December. 11,2010, a painting of Ba-ren-ji-shui by Xu Beihong, sold at Hanhai Auction at a price of RMB 171 million after over 30 rounds of intense biddings, a new record in the world history record in Chinese painting.

This year, Chinese modern art auction constantly create new records. The calligraphy of Di Zhuming by Huang Tingjian sold at Poly Auction at a price of RMB 436 million in June, which reach a high record in Chinese modern art auction. Then in November, Aiheng Lake by Zhang Da qian created a new record at a price of 100.8 million. Later Long March by Li Keran created another new record at a price of RMB 107.5 million. Immediately after the auctioneer announced the minimum bid at RMB 35 million, several buyers at site and started to bid and the price surpass RMB 100 million in one minute.

The painting of Ba-ren-ji-shui was created in 1938 by Xu Beihong, which pictured a real people’s life in Chong qin city during Auti-Japanese period, renewed as the spirit of the age.

Before this auction, this work was collected by all kinds of people and changed hands for many times. In 1949, Zhu Liang a cadre of New Fourth Army found this work and paid 1.2 million to get it after bargaining. After the Cultural Revolution, many artists and critics often came to see Zhu Liang and enjoy this work. In 2004, this work started to auction at 8 million in Hanhai Auction and sold at a price of RMB 16.5 million after ten rounds of biddings, a new record in the history of Xu Beihong painting and calligraphy auction.

Xu Beihong was born on July 19, 1895 in Yixing, Jiangsu province, China and died on Sept. 26, 1953, Beijing. He was a well-known Chinese artist and art educator. Xu became an itinerant professional painter in his early teens and an art teacher before reaching age 20. He first visited Shanghai in 1912, and over the next few years he studied Western-style painting. In 1918 Xu traveled to Beiping (now Beijing), where he was appointed a teacher at the Beiping University's Art Research Association. During this period Xu began to teach that only the realist approach from recent Western painting could revive Chinese painting. After studying in Paris and Berlin, Xu held a large-scale, one-person exhibition in Shanghai in 1926 that firmly established his fame as a modern Chinese master. He was best known for his history paintings, portraits, and pictures of horses, cats, and other animals, and he was competent both in Western media and in the traditional Chinese ink-and-wash method. His rigorous and stylish illustrations of horses were especially highly acclaimed by Chinese critics and connoisseurs and helped gain him an international reputation. In 1927 Xu returned permanently to China, where he continued to teach.