For instance, the iconic ink wash shrimps painted by Qi Baishi (1864-1957), one of China’s most celebrated modern master artists, are
so popular that they are now synonymous with the painter himself.
Whenever viewers see an ink wash painting of shrimps, they are mostly
likely to utter the name Qi Baishi.
Shrimps have been the favorite subject of Qi’s painting for decades. He first became interested in this crustacean as a boy playing around a
pond near his home. Later, when he began to paint shrimps, he also
raised a few in big bowls at home to obtain a better observation of the
species.
For years, Qi repeatedly copied the shrimp paintings of earlier masters and later he began to experiment with his own techniques and
styles. It was not until he was already a sexagenarian that he finally
created a very impressive and unique style of painting ink wash shrimps.
Qi painted shrimps in the so-called xieyi, or impressionistic style with swift, definite and spontaneous brush strokes. For instance, he
used wire-like strokes to draw the claws, applied fine flowing lines for
antennas and quick brush work for the crustacean’s walking legs and
swimmerets.
Particularly, Qi created the shrimp’s segmental abdomen and tail with simple brush rubbings featuring beautiful and subtle gradation in
the darkness of ink.As a result, Qi’s ink wash shrimps are so vivid that
in a viewer’s eyes, they really look alive.
Because his ink wash shrimps were so attractive and popular, whenever people talked about Qi, they would mention his shrimps. So,
once the painter lamented in an inscription on one of his shrimp
paintings: “I’m 78 now, and people say I only know how to paint shrimps.
It’s so wrong!”
In fact, Qi was a versatile artist.
Born into a farmer’s family in Xiangtan in south central China’s Hunan Province, Qi began to learn carpentry at the age of 12 and later
taught himself the art of painting, poetry, calligraphy and seal
cutting.
During his youth, he traveled all around China to seek inspirations from nature while ardently studying the masterpieces of early Chinese
painters. As a result, his painting was greatly influenced by masters
such as Xu Wei (1521-93), Bada Shanren (1626-1705) and Wu Changshuo
(1844-1927).It was not until he was already 57 that Qi settled down in
Beijing, later the capital of the People’s Republic of China.
By this time, Qi began to develop a unique and more modern art style of his own. Because of his rural background, he loved to paint flowers,
birds, insects, fish, shrimps and vegetables. His paintings usually
feature a lyrical simplicity and intentional childlike crudeness.
People can also see in his paintings the influences of his other skills, namely, woodblock design, realistic representation and
calligraphic brushwork.
