"Because of his wife Xiao Qiong's relationship, Jiang Zhaohe and his family were able to return to Peking in the early days of victory. His sister Jiang Wanqi was an ordinary bank employee. It was already the end of summer 1946 when she reunited with her family."

"Eight years of the Anti-Japanese War and eight years of Jiang Wanqi's escape. Among the four children, only Qichun's eldest son was still alive. When he returned home, he was so thin that he was only a skeleton, dirty and infected with infectious diseases.

.”

"The boy in "Returning Home" is based on the image of the painter's nephew when he returned. It profoundly expresses Jiang Zhaohe's compassion, sympathy, compassion and caring heart."

"Hunger and cold force me to hesitate, when will I return to my hometown? Behind "Returning Home" are the voices of millions of refugees, and it is a very painful history of China."

"He is a great painter, and his status should be above that of Xu Beihong." Zhou Zhi said softly.

"Xu Beihong had a huge influence on him, which can be seen from his painting style." Fei Guan said: "However, Xu Beihong's realism has a strong color of idealism, while Jiang Zhaohe's realism is full of realism.

.”

"Traditional Chinese pursues tranquility and subtlety, with hidden charm. It was not until Xu Beihong began to make breakthroughs and improvements. However, the only realistic-themed works are "Ba People Draw Water" and "Ba Poor Women". Of course, there are also supporting works.

The representative work "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountains" written during the Anti-Japanese War."

"It was only when Jiang Zhaohe came here that the realist-themed character paintings entered a mature stage. From leaders to workers, from old intellectuals to rural children, they are all vivid images painted by the painter."

"His painting style took shape, and we think it started with this painting "Second Brother Leaving Sichuan"."

"Is this a work created in 1938?" Zhou Zhi asked: "I think it was August 1937 when we set out to form an army."

"Yes, after that, three million people from Sichuan will rush to the battlefield."

The picture shows the Sichuan Army's departure, with family members gathered around to see them off, reluctant to leave.

The background of the picture is streets and countless figures setting off. The theme is Jiang Zhaohe's consistent style - group portraits.

The second brother of the Sichuan Army wore a British-style steel helmet, a cloth military uniform, an armed belt, a quilt bag on his back, a long gun on his shoulder, leggings, and straw sandals.

He was described as thin, with a look of anxiousness on his face, but a little girl wearing patchwork clothes in front of him eagerly grabbed the kettle strap. Although the second brother was anxious, he couldn't bear to blame him, so he had to say hello to the adults next to him.

.

There were two old people among the adults. The old woman was obviously sad and couldn't bear to see her son go to the battlefield. She turned her back to the second brother and buried her old head on her wife's shoulder.

The old man also had a look of reluctance, but he waved to his son and told him to leave quickly.

Next to the old man was his sister-in-law, who bent forward as if she wanted to pick up the girl who was holding the uncle's water bottle bag, but was stopped by a man beside him, who meant to let his daughter and brother stay a little longer.

This is a painting with the theme of sacrificing a small family and rushing to fight the national calamity. It is a microcosm of the families of the three million children of the Sichuan Army at that time. Regardless of the subject matter, techniques, expressions, body shapes, postures, and relationships between the characters, they are all presented realistically and delicately.

It hit Zhou Zhi's heart instantly.

"Great work." Zhou Zhi murmured, "I want it, how much does it cost?"

Another advantage of buying things in Gongmei Shopping Mall nowadays is that the prices are clearly marked.

The price is estimated by experts before, reviewed and approved by the committee, and then written on the label. After that, any salesperson can sell it.

No matter whether you are taking your goods to the sky or lowering them to the ground, Gongmei will neither raise nor lower the price, and there is no such thing as looking at what others will order.

So even though Zhou Zhi was so shocked by these two paintings that he described them as "great", Manager Fei still flipped through the labels: "The style of "The Return of the Native" is mature, the painting skills are exquisite, the expressions and inner feelings of the characters are profoundly portrayed, and it has been exhibited many times.

, it is also included in many published picture albums. It is a masterpiece with an undoubted inheritance and orderly identity, so the price given by the mall is...50,000."

"As for "Second Brother Leaving Sichuan", we collected it from the folk. It belongs to the artist's formative period of his style. His brushwork is a little lacking, and he has never been famous before. Although it is the subject of a major historical event, it is still slightly inferior to "Returning Home".

, so the final selling price set by the mall was...30,000 yuan."

"It's a bit excessive." Zhou Zhi raised his finger and pointed at a picture of Qiu Ying's lady on the wall: "That one only costs 100,000."

"Those are U.S. dollars." Manager Fei said calmly.

“Isn’t the exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB one to one?”

"Haha... If you can exchange it one for one, that's fine too."

"These two paintings are not likely to appreciate in value. You have been holding Gongmei in your hands for a long time, right?" Zhou Zhi hesitated: "They are not festive themes. Can't they be lowered?"

"There are also some festive themes." Manager Fei said with a smile: "The work of Jiang Zhaohe's teacher Xu Beihong, "Jiuzhou has nothing to do and is happy to work", is quite festive, do you want it?"

"What?" Zhou Zhi's heart was pounding. Although this painting is not as well-known as Xu Beihong's "Eight Horses", he also knew it: "Look at the painting?"

"I think it's OK, but bargaining is not possible." Fei Guan used the trick of rigid state-owned enterprises: "I'll say the ugly thing first, 380,000, not a penny less."

"I'll go..." Zhou Zhi's eyebrows flew with excitement.

The reason why this painting impressed him was because of the news of that year.

The person in charge of the auction house in the news excitedly claimed that although the painting was sold for 266.8 million, it was not surprising at all.

Because fifteen years ago, this work set the highest price at an art auction at that time, 1.96 million.

At that time, it was number one in the country, but it only increased one hundred and thirty-six times in fifteen years.

Then the person in charge also mentioned: This is the result of China's auction market integrating with international standards. It coincides with the tenth anniversary of the country's accession to the WTO. Compared with the bleak situation of the first international auction with a total turnover of two million yuan, it shows that today's

The country has indeed become rich and powerful, and the people have indeed become rich.

At that time, Zhou Zhi was still watching TV and sneering, but now he had a key clue.

Joining the WTO was in 2001, the tenth anniversary was in 2011, and the previous fifteen years were in 1996.

In other words, if Gongmei's painting is auctioned in four years, it will be worth 1.9 million, and if it is auctioned in 20 years, it will be worth 230 million, plus commission of 266.8 million!

But now, only 380,000 are needed!

If you can't buy it, you will suffer a loss, if you can't buy it, you will be fooled!

Human psychology is very strange. Logically speaking, there are quite a lot of good things in Zhou Zhi's collection. However, until now, Zhou Zhi has never had the happy mood of "picking up missing items".

First of all, those things are different from modern calligraphy and painting. Zhou Zhi had no intention of selling many of them, so no matter how much money they can be sold in later generations, it has nothing to do with him.

The second is that those things come too "easily". Manzhou is almost a cultural wasteland, scrapyards, and the homes of residents in various towns and villages. There are many places where you can find things from your hometown. As long as Zhou Zhi opens his mouth, there will be anyone he is unwilling to sell.

The thoughtfulness of modern calligraphy and painting does not attach much importance to these things, just like the stamps he traded before, they are "commodities" that he uses to cash in and earn the difference in price, and to trade his beloved items.
Chapter completed!