Chen Yanning is one of the leading figures among China's "third generation" realistic oil painters, alongside such peers as Ai Xuan, Chen Yifei and Luo Zhongli. Chen's painterly technique and subject matter displays similarities to that of Chen Yifei, yet Chen Yanning's portraits convey a deeper study of the human psyche. His impeccable realistic technique transcribes the subject onto the canvas with photographic fidelity, presenting a serenity and vivacity transcending his subject matter.
Humming (Lot 178) exemplifies Chen's photorealist style, one that imbues a theatrical setting with exalted and vibrant quality. The woman portrayed in a blue floral dress of early 20th Century Chinese attire with hair braided on back gazes exuberantly on the white canine clutched beneath her left forearm, poised graciously on the oriental carpet placed in a leisure manner outdoors. Such a dramatized setting and rather skewed perspective is more analogous to a film set than a real-life documentary. Chen's mastery of colour subtly plays on the blue and purple in floral patterned and stripes of the dress adding volume and curves to the figure that breaks down the flatness of the patterned carpet. The dog's luminous and shimmery white fur emphasis the sitter's pearlescent skin, demonstrating Chen's artistic skill in his mastery of light and soft focus in the realism style painting.