"Ville Chinoise" (Chinese Village) is an oil painting that Zao Wou-ki created in 1955, during the period in which he was moving away from non-figurative art towards abstract art, a period which also saw Zao at his most creatively fertile. Today, most of the world's leading modern art museums have at least one painting by Zao Wou-ki that dates from 1955 in their collections; the Tate Gallery in the U.K. has "Avant l'Orage" (Before the Storm), the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Center Georges Pompidou in Paris has "L'incendie", the Guggenheim in New York has Mistral, among others. "Hommage à Tou Fu", which commanded a higher price at auction than any other work by Zao Wou-ki to date, was also painted in 1955.

"Ville Chinoise" can be thought of as forming a pair with "Petit pont et l'eau coule" (Small Bridge over the Stream), which was sold at auction by Ravenel in the autumn of 2009. They were painted during the same period, and both feature nostalgic subject matter, with a poetic depiction of the scenery of the Chiang Nan region of China; both feature a broadly rectangular arrangement and a largely blue color scheme, although "Ville Chinoise" is a slightly larger painting.

Zao Wou-ki was born into a refined, literati family that claimed descent from the Sung Dynasty imperial house. Although Zao Wou-ki himself was born in Beijing, he grew up in Central and South China; Shanghai and Hangzhou were the scenes of most of his childhood and teenage memories. Since time immemorial, Chinese literati have been praising the beauties of the Chiangnan region in poetry and in paintings. Although Zao Wou-ki, who moved to France before the age of 30, gradually succeeded in making a name for himself in European art circles, he was often beset by homesickness and nostalgia. He missed his father's garden, rivers running under little bridges, and the excitement of village festivals. Zao Wou-ki's works from the early 1950s often have an inscription in French on the back of the canvas. On the back of this particular painting, Zao Wou-ki wrote the name "Ville chinoise" (Chinese Village).

In his autobiography, Zao Wou-ki describes his recollections of West Lake in Hangzhou: "This was a place where all the Chinese poets gathered to recite their works. As a teenager, I would come here every day, walking along the banks of the lake without ever getting tired, enraptured by the spectacle of nature changing constantly according to the time of day and with the changing of the seasons. I was fascinated by the diversity of the space on the surface of the water, by the weightlessness of the light and by how thin it seemed to be between the lake and the sky. I would spend hours watching the effect of the wind on the calm waters, the breezes that disturbed the leaves of the birch and maple trees. My vision of this world did not encompass any ornate bridges (although they certainly existed) or bamboo leaves fluttering down onto the surface of the clear water; what I wanted to see was the space, the way it stretched and contorted itself, and the infinite complexity of the blue in the tiny reflection of a leaf on the water." (Zao Wou-ki & Françoise Marquet, Zao Wou-ki Autoportrait, éditions Fayard, 1988 p. 26)

Zao Wou-ki's aim in his close observation of nature was not to try to copy or replicate nature, but rather to feel nature, and the spiritual space that it created. It was this urge that gave his romantic, abstract art its own unique style. The art critic Jean Leymarie suggested that Zao Wou-ki's paintings from the 1950s embodied a sense of "Chuang-tzu's Dream." The fine tracery in his paintings displays immense variation, sometimes heavy and thick, sometimes sharp, sometimes elegant; refinement and firmness of will co-exist with one another. After the symbolic exploration of his Klee period, Zao's art entered a more poetic era, in which he found a way to fuse Chinese and Western art effectively. Inspiration from the abstract aspect of the ancient Chinese "oracle bone script" encouraged him to incorporate a more Asian spirit into his art. "Ville Chinoise", this painting from the mid-1950s, also incorporates the romantic sensibility that Zao had acquired from living in Paris; it is perhaps the gentlest, most peaceful work by Zao dating from this period. The pulsing lines threading their way through the canvas hint at the serried rows of houses, while the layers of soft colors in different shades create the effect of a "dream city," embodying Zao's beautiful memories of a distant China.