Lot 662: LU SHIBAI

LU SHIBAI
(1905-1973)
Chrysanthemum
oil on canvas

Private Collection, Asia

Lu Shibai is one of the 20th Century Chinese prominent artists who spent his lifetime in painting and art teaching. Like many others, he also studied in France where he has developed acquaintance with modern Western Art and his expertise in still life painting. In 1934, he has already exhibited in Paris Spring Salon with two of his still life paintings. Lu Shibai's works demonstrate a beauty of simplicity and tranquility in his portraits and still life paintings. His paintings employ always a neat and succinct composition, combined with nuanced delineation of everyday life situation and ordinary people's lives. There is a tranquil and meditative ambiance that invites the spectators to review the beauty of the assumed mundane everyday life.
Born in the rural area of Jiang-su, the artist develops a genuine love and understanding of natural scenes, and country side remains a constantly employed theme in Lu's paintings in which the colors of yellow, brown and green are particularly manipulated. With the delicate tonal variations of these colors, Lu manages to express the beauty and essence of nature and wins himself the acclaim as a Natural Idyllic artist.