#Beihong hashtag - Bluesky

@mdstamper.bsky.social

4 months ago

The sitter, Christina Li Hui Wang (李惠望 often recorded in English as Christina Lee / Christina Li Hui Wang and in Chinese name order as Li Hui Wang), was a young Singaporean Chinese woman who would later marry film magnate Loke Wan Tho (陆运涛). Painted in 1940 at Jiang Xia Tang in Singapore, the portrait comes from Xu Beihong’s Southeast Asian years, when he combined fundraising exhibitions for a war-torn China with commissioned portraits of the Nanyang Chinese elite. The young East Asian woman sits turned sideways on a wooden chair, her body angled towards us while her gaze drifts slightly upward and left, as if listening to someone just out of frame. Her skin has a warm, light-golden tone as soft light from the left catches her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose, leaving gentle shadows under her chin and around her dark, thoughtful eyes. Her short, wavy black hair frames her face and brushes the collar of a close-fitting, short-sleeved dress patterned with bright red, yellow, blue, and green flowers. One bare forearm rests loosely along the chair back, fingers relaxed, suggesting ease. Behind her, a flat beige wall and a vertical band of darker tan are broken only by a slim hanging scroll with Chinese characters and a red seal, anchoring her in a Chinese cultural space. Xu’s European academic training shows in the careful modeling of Christina’s face, the convincing weight of her arm, and the natural fall of her floral dress, yet he strips away props of status to focus on her personality. She is a modern Chinese woman rooted in Chinese culture, yet dressed in cosmopolitan fashion, and living amid the uncertainties of war and empire. At this moment, Xu was emerging as a leading voice of modern Chinese art, arguing that realism could humanize national struggle. In Christina’s far-off gaze and poised, slightly tense arm, he captures a private experience of that larger history, turning a society beauty into the quiet protagonist of a modern Chinese story.

一位年轻女士的肖像 (Portrait of a Young Woman, Christina Li Hui Wang) by 徐悲鸿 / Xu Beihong (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1940 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #XuBeihong #徐悲鸿 #Beihong #BlueskyArt #CAFAArtMuseum #portraitofawoman #ChineseArtist #中央美术学院美术馆 #ChineseArt #1940s