ILLUSTRATED:

Chen Baoyi was one of China's irst generation of oil painters, art theorists cum educator who studied in Japan. In more than thirty years of his Western style painting career, he, together with many others such as Liu Haishu, Guan Liang, Xu Beihong, Pan Yu-liang, separately organized societies to study art, and set up studio schools to promote the teaching of sketching and painting. With the support of educator, Cai Yuanpei, he established the Chinese Art University together with Ding Yanyong to promote art education. Chinese writers, Lu Xun and Yu Dafu, were all once his neighbors and friends. He was closely connected to the development of Shanghai's art movements in the 1930s. Female painter, Guang Zilan, the Juelan Society, painters,Yang Qiuren and Yang Taiyang, were all his favorite disciples. He wrote many books to describe the many techniques of painting as well as theories of art. The article, "A brief account on the process of the Western style painting movement", published three years before his death, recorded the development of modern art campaigns in Shanghai from 1912 to 1940, and is now still an important historical record in the history of 20th Century Chinese art.

Chen Baoyi, whose ancestral home is in Xinhui, Canton, was born into an upper class family in Shanghai in 1893. His father was an imperial scholar from the former Ching Dynasty who had assumed important positions in Shanghai's China Merchant Bureau. Once, he voluntarily assisted Sun Yat-sen to travel eastwards to Japan for his revolutionary campaigns and he also assisted, Sheng Xuanhuai, the governor- general of Canton and Guangxi, to manage foreign affairs. The families of Chen and Sheng shared intimate relations. Chen Baoyi was born inside the "Chen Family's Garden" at Jiangwan in the suburbs of Shanghai. Inside the park were gardens in the style of Jiangnan, rockeries, pavilions and towers. The interior decoration followed the western classical styles. It was then one of Shanghai's famous gardens. Being advanced and open- minded, Chen Baoyi's father agreed to let him learn the art of painting. He irst studied in the middle school of the Young Men's Association and was initiated by Zhang Yuguang (1885-1968), who taught painting. Later, he learned at the Stage Art Studio set up by Zhou Xiang. During this time, he formed a profound friendship with Liu Haishu while they studied together. As Liu Haishu recalls, although Chen Baoyi was young then, his results were excellent. In class, both of them were the speediest in terms of sketching prowess and Chen's compositions were often praised by elders and teachers for possessing both long and short perspectives. After classes, Chen Baoyi continued to practice pencil sketching and watercolors under Zhang Yuguang, hence setting a solid foundation for his painting skills. The foreign books of art that his father bought and the catalogues of paintings by Goya, El Greco and Renoir that were found in the bookshops of Shanghai, were all the sources of nutrients that nourished his artistic theories in the early period.

Chen Baoyi headed to Japan to study Western style painting in 1913 and gained admittance into the White Horse Society Western Painting School. The school adopted the Open-Air painting styles, imported during the early periods by the likes of Kuroda Seiki (1866-1964), which possessed certain authority in Japan then. Chen can be considered as a senior among the famous early painters who studied in Japan. Other Chinese painters such as Guan Liang (1917), Liu Haishu (1918), Sanyu (1919), came after Chen Baoyi (1913); as for Taiwan, the two earliest artists to study in Japan were Huang Tu-shui (1915) and Wang Yuezhi (1915), while the period of studies in Japan for other senior Taiwanese painters were mostly after the 1920s.

In 1914, Chen Baoyi temporarily suspended his studies due to illness, returning to recuperate in Shanghai. Under the invitation of Liu Haishu, he lectured on western style painting at the Shanghai Painting and Art Institute and caught the attention of others when he imported the plaster model method of instruction from Japan. A few of his painter friends formed the Eastern Art Association in 1915. Other than Chen and Liu, members including Wu Shiguang, Wang Yachen, promoted painting from life and nature. In 1916, Chen Baoyi embarked on yet another journey to Japan, enrolling irst in the "Nika Art Institute" set up by the famous Japanese Painter, Fujishima Takeji (1867-1943), and shortly after that, into the Tokyo Fine Arts School. He studied in Japan for 5 years, and his style was influenced by Post-Impressionism and Neo-realism. While in school, he set up the "Chinese Art Association" together with other Chinese students. On the other hand, he was also on friendly terms with Japanese New School painters such as Arishima Ikuma (1882- 1974) and Nakagawa (1892-1972). Arishima Ikuma taught senior Taiwanese painters such as Liu Chi-hsiang, Chen Te-wang, Chen Chin-fen. Both Arishinma and Nakagawa were the representatives of "The Second Department Association", which was a New School organization that objected to the Open Air School of thought in the academy's doctrine. Through interactions with them and their friends, Chen Baoyi gradually accepted the thoughts of Post-Impressionism. While in Japan, Chen Baoyi fell in love and married the young Japanese lady literati, Chen Fanmei, and they returned together to Shanghai after 1921.

After returning from Japan, he set up another apartment studio in his Jiangwan residence and created the "Po Yi Studio Art Class" by himself, which instructed on western sketching and oil painting creations. This was in the form of the original studio school that Fujishima Takeji promoted in Japan, studying and practicing the teaching of oil painting. In 1922, he began teaching at the Shanghai Fine Arts School, and started on life drawing. Members of the Juelan Society, Yang Qiuren and Yang Taiyang were some of the students then. After that, Chen Baoyi, Ding Yanyong and others, established the "Chinese Art University" in Shanghai. The two were responsible for teaching western style painting, stressing the basics of charcoal sketching. To make oil painting more popular, Chen Baoyi wrote The Basics of Oil Painting, a much more systematic book teaching the techniques of oil painting in Modern China. In the autumn of 1929, he set up the "Sunlight Art Academy" together with Japanese painter, Akita, at the "Chen Family's Garden" in Jiangwan. In the autumn of 1930, he transferred to the Shanghai Art Academy to be Head of the Western style painting branch. Unexpectedly, the Shanghai Art Academy and the Jiangwan studio were destroyed when the "January 28 Incident" broke out in Shanghai in 1932. Chen was forced to stay with his relatives in the urban districts of Shanghai. In 1936, Chen Baoyi, Wang Yachen, Pan Yuliang, Zhu Qizhan and Xu Beihong established the "Muo Society" to jointly hold exhibitions. After Shanghai had fallen to the Japanese, Chen Baoyi went to paint in Hong Kong, where he associated with the likes of Li Tiefu and Yee Bon, and they held their exhibitions together. During the Sino-Japanese wars, Chen Baoyi lived in seclusion in the city districts of Shanghai, where he was plagued by poverty and ill health in his later years, up till 27th of July 1945, when he died of illness.

His Japanese wife also passed away in a depressed state in 1952. Chen Luning, their only daughter, abided by her mother's dying wish and donated a batch of Chen Baoyi's last works to the China Art Museum in 1964. In 1988, Chen Ruilin compiled and wrote the Modern Artist, Chen Baoyi (People's Fine Arts Publishing House), which had its preface written by the elder of the art circle, Liu Haishu. The book collects many of Chen Baoyi's articles on art theories that were published during the 20s and 30s, as well as 36 illustrations of oil paintings, one of drawing, 8 of sketches and 3 of caricatures by the painter. This season's auction item, "Rose", is published within the book. In addition, the book written by Liu Xin in 1996, An illustrated Hundred-year-Story of Oil Painting in China (Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House), also introduced Chen Baoyi's 1933 work, "Rose", using large plates.

Chen Baoyi's Japanese friend, Saburo Kikuchi, once wrote a long article, Chen Baoyi and Chinese Oil Painting, where he pointed out that Chen Baoyi loved flowers and plants, which were the main subjects of his paintings. Besides this, Chen Baoyi also painted many portraits of his beloved wife. High appraisals were given by all of his friends for his art work as well as his character. Everybody addressed him as "Mr Nice Guy". He could always discuss art passionately with whomever he was talking to. When the "Chen Family's Garden" and the studio were destroyed in the Shanghai incident, Chen was then in his prime, but the Chen family instantly fell upon hard times. From then on till the end of his life, he used as a starting point, flowers and plants in the Realistic styles of the "Chen Family's Garden" period, and later, gradually turned to more caring and humane subjects in real life after the outbreak of the second World War. "Rose" was completed in 1933, when Chen Baoyi had long been living in seclusion at a relative's house. Lu Xun and Yu Dafu were his neighbors. Even in such financial straits, Chen Baoyi did not lose any grace and mannerisms coming from a scholarly family. The roses under his brushstrokes were elegant and poised while revealing wafts of unwavering will.

From the work, "Rose", we can observe the influences that Post-Impressionism had on the painter. The colors are clear, succinct, plentiful and substantial. The composition is well knit yet voluminous, displaying the vivid emotions of Expressionism. His student, Yang Taiyang, in the article, A Respectable Elder, An Earnest Advice, recalls, "... the ways of Master Baoyi are deeply influenced by the traditions of the West. His style is sound and down to earth, natural and easy, stressing particularly on the display of color tones. Towards modern art, he has maintained an open attitude, never yielding to shallowness or numbness. Towards art, he maintains a solemn and serious attitude that one could even describe as pious. His practice pieces are usually already excellent pieces of creations by themselves. Master Baoyi's style is basically realistic, but also coupled with a kind of Expressionist pursuit..." Xu Suning (1909- 1997) the Shanghai movie director who rose to prominence in the 1950s, was once a student under Chen Baoyi and he believes that "Chen Baoyi's oil paintings have a sharp and sensitive feeling towards color tones, possessing a kind of refreshing and sprightly color effect. Especially his still lifes as well as lowers and plants, which could be rated tops in the circle of oil painting during that period."

In the 1930s, Chen Baoyi, keeping watch on the future and development of the art scene, encouraged members of the Juelan Society to hold an exhibition. At this time, the returning students from Japan and France began a competition of styles in Shanghai, making 1930s' Shanghai the most prosperous region for the movements of early 20th Century Chinese Modern art. "As an active painter in the art circle of early Chinese oil painting, Chen Baoyi was very highly reputed. Mr Feng Zikai (1898-1975) once commended highly Chen Baoyi's works, and was doubly appreciative of his smaller sized compositions, which he felt were ine works that were hard to come by then. In the 1934 volume 85 of the publication, 'Liang You', a colored print introduced the works of Chen Baoyi as in the Fauvist style, lowing strokes and illed with conidence, terse and succinct palette employed but filled with splendor and majesty. The highly practiced skills always compel admiration and brings about satisfaction." (Chen Ruilin). These words have suitably commented on the painting style of Chen Baoyi.

References:

Chen Ruilin (ed.), Modern Artist, Chen Baoyi, People's Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, September 1988.
Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angelos, London 1996 Odile Chen (ed.), Pioneers of Western Art in the Early Republican Period, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, June 1996.