Qi Baishi was a famous painter whose life of nearly 100 years spanned two centuries. In 1864 Qi Baishi was born in Hunan, his former first name is Chunzhi, and was called Weiqing. It was later changed to Huang, whose alternative names were Baishi and Scholar Mu. He was a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In his youth, he learned flower engraving carpentry, and began to learn painting in 1888. He was the leader of the Long Shoushan Poem Community. Starting in 1902, he traveled to Shanxi, Beijing, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi five times. In 1917 he went to Beijing for the second time, and settled down there in 1919 when

he began to reform his artistic style. From 1926 to 1936, he was appointed to teach in the National Beiping Art School. In 1937, he decided to add two years to his age. In 1946, he held exhibitions in Nanjing and Shanghai and was appointed as an honorary professor of the National Beiping Art School.

In 1949 Qi Baishi was selected as a member of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the All-China Artists' Federation. In 1952 he was appointed as an honorary professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, chairman of Union of Chinese Artists, research fellow of Central Research Institute of Culture and History, chairman of Beijing Traditional Chinese Painting Research Association, honorary director of Beijing Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting. In 1953, the Ministry of Culture awarded him the title "People's Artist". In 1955, German Institute of Art and Science awarded him "Communication Academician". In 1963, he was selected as one of the world's cultural celebrities by the World Peace Council. And in the same year, a memorial exhibition for the 100 Year Anniversary of his birth was held in China Art Gallery. At the same place his 120 Year Anniversary Exhibition was held in 1983. Some albums like "Selected Works of Qi Baishi", and "Selected Works of Qi Baishi Landscape Paintings" have been published.

What are subjects of Qi Baishi’s paintings?
The subjects of his paintings include almost everything, commonly animals, scenery, figures, toys, vegetables, and so on. He theorized that "paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness, much like today's vulgarians, but not like to cheat popular people". In his later years, many of his works depict mice, shrimp, or birds. He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the fortune of three hundred stone seals".

What is the representative of Qi Baishi?
On June 28, 2009，the renowned painter Qi Baishi’s work, "Mouse and Cat with Lamp", was sold for RMB 4.48 million at the 18th China Guardian Quarterly Auction.

What are characteristics of Qi’s Works?

Some of Qi's major influences include the early Qing Dynasty painter Bada Shanren (or Zhu Da) and the Ming Dynasty artist Xu Wei. Baishi had his own philosophy on painting which read: “In speech, use language that people can understand. In painting, depict things that people have seen”.

Baishi wasn’t the first artist to focus on small things in nature, he was acknowledged for his very beautiful and unique way of painting such common images.

Some artists praised him for his “freshness and spontaneity that he brought to the familiar genres of birds and flowers, insects and grasses, hermit-scholars and landscapes”.