Chapter 1233 Appreciation (1/2)

There were oil paintings in the western artistic tradition, and then there were ink wash paintings in the east.

Due to economic factors, geography and modernization, the west surpassed China in its ability to influence culture. It could be said that the West has made its leap over to the East first.

Many hundreds of years had passed from the time the missionaries first arrived in China until the time the first Chinese students returned from studying abroad. During that period of time, there had been vigorous development of the oil painting art in the southern trading ports of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, oil painters had first appeared in China during the Qing Dynasty.

Among them, in the earliest years, the most famous oil painting master was Spoilum.

There was little information on Spoilum on the internet. Hence, Li Du did not know much about him. However, Logan Stanley did have a decent amount of information on Spoilum.

”Spoilum could be considered the pioneer in the late Qing dynasty art movement. He was the one to bring oil painting to the people and allowed it to spread and become valuable. According to the research I did the day before, Spoilum's paintings were sold for ten US dollars apiece back then.”

Li Du nodded. Ten US dollars in the late Qing dynasty period. According to the conversions, it would be equivalent to one hundred thousand US dollars today.

”Spoilum was a great artist. His portrait-sketching abilities were outstanding. Hence, his business was very prosperous, and even the mayor of Sailun City took his wife to visit the Chinese trading port and asked him to paint a portrait of her.”

It was understandable that in the art market, reputation meant business, and business promoted the development of art. As Spoilum became more popular, the number of people who admired him and came to meet him would increase.

”However, the thing that made him more influential was the fact that he had shaped a unique style of oil painting. He established his own style of portrait painting very early in his career. Look, the contrast between these portraits is not great, but pay attention to how the facial features had been done.”

”There's something special about his paintings. He liked to paint the background using brownish-gray or bluish-gray. Look at this one here, have you guys noticed it? The background of the portrait has a lighter halo than the darker side of the face…”

As Logan Stanley was giving them a crash course on Spoilum, he was also inspecting the authenticity of their paintings.

Hearing that, Hans asked, ”These paintings are genuine, right? They are all the works of this high profile Mister Spoilum, isn't that so?”

Logan Stanley revealed a smile and said, ”Let me get to that. It's actually hard to identify whether a painting is genuine or a fake. It's easy enough to determine the era of the painting. However, it's hard to confirm if all of these were painted by Spoilum himself.”

”As I said just now, Spoilum was known for defining the style of oil painting in the Southern China business port region. From the latter part of the 18th century and for the next 50 years or so, the artists there followed his style of painting.”

”Some had been really good at imitating his style and hence, most of the paintings have either been autographed with Spoilum's name or been classified as Spoilum's painting style. Therefore, it would be difficult to say for sure whether these were really painted by Spoilum.”

Li Du replied, ”There are autographs and dates on the back of these paintings. Look at this one, the autograph is on the front. Spoilum, April 1777. Portrait of the captain Ralph Morris on board of his ship at Pearl River Estuary.”

Logan Stanley shook his head. ”This isn't enough to prove authenticity. Of course, it will be useful to analyze the style and handwriting.”

”If we can't be certain that this is Spoilum's work, could the value of the paintings drop?” Hans asked, concerned.

Logan nodded. ”That's right. Spoilum's paintings are very valuable. At that time, artists were in awe of him. For example, John Mires mentioned, 'Spoilum is an outstanding Chinese painter. Perhaps one of his kind in that entire enormous country.'”