Ancient Chinese Warrior and Emperor Cao Cao
Cao
|
Cao
|
The story behind this Ancient Chinese Warrior painting:
Cao Cao (Pinyin:
Cao Cao - note that a "C" in pinyin is pronounced like a "Ts" so
pronounce this warrior's name like Tsao Tsao) (155 - 220 A.D.)
Cao Cao was a regional
warlord and the last
Chancellor of
Eastern Han Dynasty who rose to great power during the last years of the
Eastern Han Dynasty in ancient China.
As one of the central figures of the
Three Kingdoms period, he laid down foundations for what was to become the
Kingdom of Wei (also known as Cao Wei) and was posthumously titled Emperor Wu of Wei.
Although generally characterized as a cruel and suspicious character in the
Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other folk cultures, the historic Cao Cao was a brilliant ruler,
military strategist and poet.
Click here to read the long story about Cao Cao's life and adventures.
This edited information about Cao Cao was obtained from Wikipedia
Used in compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License.
About the Art
This is an elaborate style painting using special black Chinese ink and watercolor on xuan paper (rice paper).
This rice paper was then taken to our mounting shop in Beijing where a hand-made silk wall scroll was created for this painting.
This wall scroll then flew with me from China to the USA and is now located at our San Diego, California gallery, ready to be shipped to you.
How I found this art...
Visiting an old friend and artist in Chengdu, I notice a woman is politely waiting for me. Soon enough, I finish my business, and leave my friend to work on some art that I would pick up several days later. The polite woman greets me as I walk out. She quietly asks if I would just take a look at her artwork.
I walk over to her little booth and take a look. The work is good, and I am surprised that she doesn't have a studio-gallery like a lot of artists. She says that she likes to sell in the market, and put paintings in the hands of "the common man". It is then that I realize we have a similar philosophy.
I look through her whole collection and pick out several pieces that I like. Her husband shows up, and helps out getting paintings out of boxes for me to look at.
After we settle and I pay for all of the paintings, he asks if there is any other kind of art that I am looking for. I tell him, in Chinese, "I have been looking for warriors and really cool dragons for a long time". Suddenly he is very excited. Grabbing through several boxes he emerges with a photo album. He hands the album to me and tells me that I must look!
Opening the album, I see a great collection of paintings of "Legendary Warriors of China" and several eye-catching dragons. He tells me that all of the photos are of his paintings.
Now, I get pretty excited, because I've been looking for good warrior-paintings for more than a year and a half, and I am always on the lookout for a good dragon-painting.
He doesn't have any work ready to sell, but we talk about sizes, styles, and which warriors and dragons I want, and even down to what the background of each piece should be. We talk until the end of the day, and finally, we talk about the price. I am expecting something high, but the price he gives me is just too low for this quality of work. So, for the first time in my art-buying career, I "reverse-bargain", and tell him that I will pay 50% more as long as the quality is good. He and his wife look puzzled for a second, and then he remarks in Chinese, "I have been waiting to hear someone say that for a long time". The gesture as they took it was not about money, but more about my personal compliment on the quality and importance of the art itself.
About the artist:
The artist's name is Li Ying-Lai. He lives with his wife and young daughter near Chengdu, in the Sichuan province of China. As if fitting the stereotype, he loves to paint dragons and warriors, but his wife paints beautiful women, flowers, landscapes, and animals.
They both live the en life of artists. Both of them have the attitude that the art itself is more important than money. The honor of knowing that their work will now be on the walls of homes throughout the world is the thing they feel strongest about.
2006 Update
Leaving Kashgar (a 2000-year-old trading post and gateway from China to the Middle East), I was sick as a dog, even incorrectly thinking that I had Malaria for a few days. I wanted badly to just head back home to Beijing, but I knew that I needed to head to Chengdu to see this husband and wife artist duo.
It had been over a year since I had seen them, and due to a phone number change, we lost contact for a while. It was time to rekindle our relationship (relationships or "guanxi" is a very important concept in Chinese culture - it's often about showing mutual respect, exchanging favors, developing a friendship before doing business, and building trust).
I found that Li Ying-Lai is doing pretty well now. His artwork was recently featured in "The 3rd Eye" magazine (a major fine art publication distributed in Mainland China and Hong Kong). Other art critics have recommended investment purchases of Li Ying-Lai's artwork, expecting that it will increase in value during the coming years.
This also means it's time to pay more for his artwork. We talked for a while and decided to increase everything by about 50%. So suddenly a $100 painting from him is now $150, but orders for his artwork pour in from Shanghai collectors that are paying twice as much. The fact that we have "guanxi" from all of my purchases of his artwork before he became famous means that I can still bring his artwork to you at a higher, but still affordable price.
Want a Custom Asian Warrior Painting?
This artist creates many different warrior paintings. If you are looking for a famous warrior of ancient China, just let us know which warrior, and what size you want, and we'll commission the painting and mount it for you in our workshop.
The painting shown to the left is an excerpt (about 2/3 of the whole painting) from a special piece the artist did that is over 11 meters (35 feet) wide. At the time of writing, this painting is for sale at an asking price of $10,000. It's been featured in a couple of Asian art magazines, so the painting itself is getting famous. But it's just waiting for someone with a lot of wall space and the means to complete a very big art framing project.
