Good example of painting on commission : Wang Sijia - My two cats

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi All,

Many  modern  artists  will paint  portraits  on commission  from photographs.   Even  some  the  top artists   who come to  CAC in HK  every month  like  Huang San  accept  commission   portrait  paintings from customers  ( I have no idea  what they charge  :  probably   USD 2  -  3 K  depending on the fame  of the   artist)

And of course, the  portrait  paintings  of  Ma Shaoxian , which  are   those of his  works  which are  by far  the  most  treasured   by collectors - now   fetching  prices  in the  USD100,000  range  ( as  per  the Bloch  Auctions)  - were   an early  form  of commission  portrait  painting

Artists   also  accept  commissions  to   copy canvas paintings  into  bottles. There  are  many  fine  such examples  on Bill's  website ,  most of which are  painted  by  senior  students / up-coming  young  artists  of  Li Shouxun  in  Hengshui  whom both  Bill and I rank as our  best and  most-loved   friend  in Hengshui .  Li  Shouxun  is a very  humble  man with a very big  heart  who does  his  very  best to  help  his students .

I  will in due  course  post a very  interesting  story of a commission  based on a canvas  painting that  Li  Shouxun  did  for me  himself  ( although  I did not know it at the  time )

For  now, here's  a  commission  painting  by Wang Sijia,   who is  Li Shouxun's  senior  student . It  is  the   portraits of  two of my two cats  :  " Mr  T:   and  " Lok Lok" . The  brushwork detail  is  incredible. The  low  res pictures  I am posting    cannot  do  justice  to the  detail  :  it  needs a   3  MB  pic   enlarged to   reach the  limit  where  you can   differentiate  between  the original  photo and the  painting.

This  commission was not  expensive . I paid  RMB2,000 = USD 300  in 2009   for this  bottle, which  was the standard price   from  Li Shouxun for  this quality  of   work at that  time ( and  probably is  the same today).

You  can find  numerous   examples  of   works  by  Wang Sijia  on Bill's  website, many of  which are commissioned  copies  of  modern Chinese  oil  canvas  paintings.  The quality and   detail  are  amazing, and  I  would  venture to  say that  even  the best current  masters  could  not  do   do   significantly  better . Or at least it would  take a  very  trained  eye to  spot the  difference   between a  top  Modern artists'  work and   a  younger  but  highly  skilled   artist  like  Wang Sijia.

Miao...          Peter  @  HK

   
 

[George]

What a beautiful couple of cats you have !

The paintings are really amazing !

[richy88]

Very nice cats, Peter!

There are some artists who are very good in painting dogs and cats and you can almost feel the hairy fur of the animal from the painting. One such painter is Cao Hui Min from the Ji School. Attached is a bottle painted by her.

Also not forgetting the master himself, Wang Xisan also have painted excellent bottles on cats.

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi Richy

On  this point  we may   have  to  agree to  differ..........

Yes, Modern  artists   can paint  dogs  beautifully ,   but  very  few  can paint  cats .  They  can   simulate the  fur ( I think I read  somewhere  that  Wang Xisan   first  developed that   fur  technique),  but  in 99% of cases  they get the  cats's faces   wrong.  Here's another   Cao  Huimin from the  Nanyang  Group  book .   The  3  kittens  look like  like  aliens   -  at least  to my cat-trained   eye.  I once  had   8  persian cats  all at the same  time , and  before that  normal    moggy  cats , so I do  know  what a cat's face  should look like !

I  once  saw  an early Wang  Xisan   cat  bottle   that  had  reportedly been sold  at an auction in  China  for  RMB500,000   =  USD80,000.  No doubt it was a  historic  bottle ,thus the high price,  but the  cat looked  even  wierder than  the Cao  Hui Min cats    attached . There  is  one    Hengshui  painter  who can paint  cats realistically : I forget  her name,  a lady . But   apart  from her, and   commission paintings  like  Wang Sijia's   example, I have   seen very few  realistic  cat   IPB  paintings.     The  exception   which proves the rule  is   our  friend  Nei Lei  / aka Yi Ding  of  character  painting  fame,  which  is   another  story  to tell  (" the  cat  who came back home" )

Miao  Miao  !     Peter @ HK

[richy88]

Hahaha, Peter! Sorry, I not a 'cat' man! 

Thanks for sharing!

[snuffbottlecollector]

Richard,

Wonder how long Cao Huimin had those dogs pose . Your pups look a lot like mine ...
http://www.snuffbottlecollector.com/cao_huimin/ch_2.htm

Bill

[Pat - 查尚杰]

hm... I guess repeated subjects remains an issue, hundred plus years later.  Just for fun, I tried to keep track once of how often a Ma Shou Xuan Bottle was repeated from sales of different collectors (one from the dream of the Red Chamber), have to finf my hand and pics and scans, and gave up at over a dozen. I wonder if each original owner thought they had a unique copy!

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Bill, 
THis  could be another  of those  cases  where the   artist  paints    an identical   botte   several  times   during his lifetime like   our  Red  Sun  bottles  by   Jiang  Hongliang
Cheers  Peter  @ HK

[richy88]

Hi Bill

It is quite common for the artist to repeat the same subject over and over again which may upset the collector as his piece may not longer be unique.

Based on the signature on your photo, it is painted in 1995 whereas mine is stated as 1989.

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi Richard, Bill and All

Very true !           

I   first  came face to face  with this    about   2  years  ago.  There's a  beautiful  bottle  which I call " Red Sun"     painted  by  Jiang Hongliang =  Song Shi.  The  bottle  was  published in Wang Ziyong's    2- part  book on Ji  School  arstists and  I was always  impressed  by   the picture ( see   attachment).  Then  Jiang Hongliang  came to HK in  early 2009   as the  visiting artist of the month.  I  went to meet  him and see  his  works, and  there  was Red Sun in all its  glory, looking even more  beautiful  than  I thought . List price  USD 8,850 ! ( HK$69,000)   There was no possible way I could  afford   to buy it, even  with the    30%  discount   CAC  usually gives me . But  I decided  it  was  worth a  try if I could  get the price down  to   less than   HK$30 K   so  I asked the   CAC sales manager  to see what he  could  do  as a  special  one-time  case. ( You can see from this   that  I was   still  in the  me -vs- artist   negotiation  phase of  my collecting  experience)
Finally  , after a loooong    negotiation  Mr Jiang explained  because it was his  signature piece  he  could  not  go below  HK$33 K   so we  agreed  HK$32,888 ( USD 4,200)  and he   gave me  free of  charge a beautiful 100  goldfish  natural  crsytal bottle  that  was  priced  at  HK$18 K.  Thus I bought  Red  Sun  ( see  pic) .

Later  Bill told  me that he also  had a   "Red Sun"  by Jiang Hongliang bought  in 2002 ( see attachements) !   And of  course  he  had paid  only a small   fraction of  what  I  had paid. This  of course  upset  me  somewhat because  I  had assumed  the  version I had bought   was  THE  one and only version, as   shown in the  Wang Ziying book. But when  I looked  very closely  I could  see that  not only were  my and Bill's versions slightly  different in fine detail,  but that  also  my version was not  even  the same  as  in the  Wang Ziyong  book.   So  3  versions ...  at least ! 

I therefore  wrote to  Jiang Hongliang  and   he reply  was  very interesting .( see attachment)

Interesting  story !   

Cheers   Peter @ HK

PS : And there's  an even more   interesting   side  story  to this, which I'm proud  to  say proves  that I am true to  my  " Hobby Horse"   Principle, even  if it  hurts  my wallet .  Ask  me  by private email  because  it's confidential
 

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Well...high horse..hobby horse.. betting horse, whatever.  This is a practice that royally pisses me off (and if my wallet combined with my trust gets involved.. hm.. not a good idea).   I think these people/artists/skilled craftspeople should at least make an honest attempt to track their 'copies' or repeated subjects, like lithographs indicated copy x/of xxx AND be truthful and honest about it, AND state where to got their inspiration, idea, copy from (a common practice with the old-er masters).

It is NO coincidence that you see hundreds of books of pictures and paintings owned and used by these people (as evidenced by pics of just one of these 'artists'.  You see the same with regular 'painters' allover Asia, who are often very good, but not necessarily original.  A commisioned copy of a piece of art you like is one thing, but to think you are buying an original or unique item is another.  Often it starts as a copy and it keeps on being copied, we just never know about it until we find out, by accident or by fate.  Considering the prices these modern artists are starting to command, they owe us at least that.  Without that it is skill and craft, NOT art.  Sorry...

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Pat,

Sad  but  true.  But there's not  much  we can do  about  it. Just   live  with  it and   be aware  of  the  possibility   that  what we  think  is  an  original  unique  bottle   may  be   just  one  of a series  which the  painter has  painted  over his lifetime.  Some  signed , some  unsigned

This  string  has strayed a long way from  my  original  discussion   thread  so I think I will   re- start   a  thread  on the  matter  of  multiple  copies

I have  some  more  examples  of this that are  very interesting

Cheers  Peter  @ HK