Qi Baishi  齊白石

 

 2011 Rank:2     Auction Revenue:US$510 million

2010 Rank:2     Auction Revenue:US$339.23 million

QI Baishi(1864-1957), born in Xiangtan, Hunan, was one of the top ten most renowned Chinese painters in the 20th century. Qi was a versatile master skilled at painting human figures, animals and landscape. He was especially noted for his ink-on-paper depiction of flowers, birds, insects and fish. He had the ability to present the essence of his subjects in only a few strokes.

In 2011, his new-high and best-ever result came from his painting "Eagle Standing on Pine Tree with Four-Character Couplet in Seal Script", which fetched US$57.2 million at the Beijing-based China Guardian in May 2011. It was also the best auction result recorded by Artprice in the year. Qi's 2011 auction revenue of US$510 million was generated by his nearly 1,000 artworks, cementing his No. 2 position again.