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Lot Essay
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Fu Baoshi and his family relocated to Chongqing and lived in a small cottage at Jingangpo. Apart from teaching at the university, he devoted himself entirely to painting. This was when Fu started to explore figure paintings. He depicted historical characters and ladies whose emotions are vividly expressed through their eyes.
Ladies playing a ruan is a recurring theme in Fu Baoshi’s works from this period. Painted in 1943, Listening to the Ruan depicts a scene in which two scholars sit face-to-face under a tree and listen attentively to the music of a ruan played by the lady musician. Not far away from the scene, a humble servant holding a tray with a wine vessel stands beside a tree. The melancholy in the lady’s eyes and the desolate atmosphere seem to express the loneliness of the elite.
Ladies playing a ruan is a recurring theme in Fu Baoshi’s works from this period. Painted in 1943, Listening to the Ruan depicts a scene in which two scholars sit face-to-face under a tree and listen attentively to the music of a ruan played by the lady musician. Not far away from the scene, a humble servant holding a tray with a wine vessel stands beside a tree. The melancholy in the lady’s eyes and the desolate atmosphere seem to express the loneliness of the elite.