Qi Baishi - Early Life

Early Life

He was born in Xiangtan Hunan and grew up in a family of low-income background. He lived with his parents, grandparents, and eight younger sisters and brothers. Qi Baishi was schooled for less than a year due to illness. However, he was too weak do much of the work and this was when he became a carpenter. While Qi Baishi was growing up, he came upon a Chinese manual of painting, this was what sparked his interest in art and painting animals, insects and other types. In his painting, depict things that people have seen however, he didn’t start following this motto until much later in his life. He first studied the "Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden" (芥子園畫傳) and used performers, mainly opera, for models to practice his work. After using opera performers as models Qi Baishi turned to anyone he knew to pose for him and Baishi has lots of painting throughout his life and he became one of the best painters in China and he painted with oil paste and paint