Qi Baishi (齐白石) is a master painter of modern China and is among the world famous cultural celebrities. He was born in Xiangtan, Hunan province (湖南湘潭) in January 1, 1864. He never left his hometown until 50 or so and came to Beijing when he was already 57 years old.

Mr. Qi, born in an average poor family, had been an carpenter before 27. Influenced by the famous painter Hu Qinyuan (胡沁园), he began to learn painting and became the student of Wang Xiangqi (王湘绮) when he was 37. Between 37 and 40, Mr. Qi had already been a professional artist, making a living only by selling his own artworks, and rose to little fame in his hometown Xiangtan.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the whole society of China was in turbulence. Some bandits noticed Mr. Qi was rich and wanted to rob his artworks and the artist himself. Under such pressure, he left his hometown for Beijing to avoid being robbed and abducted.

In Beijing, he was alone and needed to be taken care of, and so he married a new wife named Hu Baozhu (胡宝珠), who was then aged 18.

Lodging in Beijing, Mr. Qi sold his artworks in Liulichang (琉璃厂), the most famous street for selling ancient, antique and valuable paintings, calligraphic artworks, Chinese brushes, Chinese ink, rice paper, ink stone and so on. He sold each of his paintings on arched paper fans at 2 yuan (silver coin), half cheaper than the artworks produced by other artists of that time. However, no one bought his artworks, mainly because his painting style was not appreciated by the Beijingers of that time. On the other hand, he was despised by the artists in Beijing because of his poor origin.

Without enough revenue to survive for 7-8 years in Beijing, he lodged in Fayuan Temple (法源寺), Longquan Temple (龙泉寺), Guanyin Temple (观音寺)and other places, and his life was really terrible, not only in material but also in mind.

Bombarded by his tough life, Mr. Qi accepted the suggestion of Chen Shizeng (陈师曾: a famous painter of that time in Beijing) to change his painting style. Polishing for 10 years, he finally created his own special style: Red Flower and Inky Leaf Genre (红花墨叶派), which means using the red color to paint flowers and the transparent ink color to paint leaves.

Mr. Qi finally won the appreciation of another famous Chinese painter Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿) and his fame began to rise in Beijing. His grandson recalled: “My grandpa had been working hard to paint. If he didn’t paint in a day, he would feel uneasy; and if he didn’t carve seals in five days, he would feel his hands itchy.”

Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿), Li Kerang (李可染)  and others took a photo together.

Mr. Qi had two wives, who gave birth to 6 sons and 6 daughters for him. Plus his daughters-in-law, great grandsons and great grand daughters, he had a family of 40 members. To raise the two families, one in Beijing and the other still in Tanxiang, Hunan province, he tried hard to sell his paintings in Beijing.

Therefore, he only talked about money and didn’t hurt the feelings of others. He made a rule: “I don’t mix the prices of my artworks with personal feelings. If you love my works, let’s just talk about the prices of them, no matter how good or bad our relationships are.”

Before 27, Mr. Qi was only a carpenter, came to Beijing at 57 and turned into a real master painter at 80. Compared with so many other Chinese coming to Beijing to seek fortune, he must be the most successful one in Chinese history! His artworks have already been sold for $ 70,000,000.