There are a total of three paintings in the black tube.

The moment Gu Weijing touched the inside of the painting tube with his hand, his brows were furrowed.

The paintings are preserved in a problematic way - they are rolled inwards and there is no padding in the middle of the scrolls.

"Very low-level error."

A thought immediately turned in Gu Weijing's mind.

Oil painting is three-dimensional art, and pigment is not simply a two-dimensional plane.

It has volume, but also thickness.

If you touch a piece of paper with your own hands, you will feel very intuitively that the surface of the picture is as uneven as a rough particle board.

This is the mark left by the painter who smears it with a pen on the canvas.

The pigment solidifies layer by layer on the surface of the canvas, forming a unique luster and texture of oil painting.

These pigments are fragile.

Therefore, it is very important to preserve it properly after the painting is completed.

In general, in order to prevent the surface of the oil painting from weathering and cracking, a layer of varnish is sprayed on the surface of the canvas, and then fixed in a dark place with a frame.

If you really don't like the frame to take up space, it's not impossible to roll it up with a painting tube and save it.

Just for better preservation, so that the paints will not squeeze each other, even if you want to use a painting tube for storage, the most basic principle is that the direction of the oil painting should be the side with the paint to roll outward, not like the painting tube in Gu Weijing's hand, the picture can be folded inward.

Normally, a thicker paper tube should be placed in the center of the tube to prevent the painting from being accidentally flattened.

These are the basic common sense for the preservation of oil paintings, and they are not complicated or technically difficult.

As long as you use dim sum, you can't go wrong.

These three paintings were treated so hastily that there are only two possibilities.

Either the person who handled these works was a layman, or he felt that these three paintings were very unworthy of attention and were treated as ordinary garbage.

Or both.

Gu Weijing's heart was half cold at that time, he knew that if it was a fine oil painting, he would never be treated like this.

He was still patient, and unfolded the three dirty canvases in front of him in turn.

These paintings look like they were once furnishings and decorations in the rooms of the Great Writers' Mansion.

The first one on the top looked brighter oil paintings, and Gu Weijing just glanced at them and lost interest.

No wonder the people who handle these paintings are very flippant.

It's really not a good piece.

Even, this is not an oil painting at all, but a print.

Modern oil paints are dense pastes, and prints are a layer of colored dots attached to the surface of cotton cloth or plastic paste.

Just by casually looking at the side light, it is easy to know whether the painting is real or fake.

This is also normal, looking at the label on the booth, Gu Weijing should not have too many expectations in his heart.

The vast majority of the world's hotel art displays are of this type.

Prints are not cheaper than hand-painted paintings, and more than 70 percent of visitors simply don't have the ability to tell the difference.

"Twentieth Century Fine Old Paintings...... I really dare to blow it. ”

Gu Weijing complained speechlessly.

The second painting is also exactly the same work of no surprises, and then the third painting is still the same dirty, still the same......

Wait!

Gu Weijing, who had already been overwhelmed by disappointment in his heart, realized that something was wrong as soon as he got the drawing paper.

His gaze had not yet fallen on the drawing paper, but his sense of touch had already fed the information back into his mind.

The feel of this canvas is noticeably different from the first two.

The first two paintings are paintings, no, printed on cotton cloth.

The advantage of using cotton cloth as a base material for oil painting is that it is cheaper.

The downside is everything except cheaper.

Cotton cloth is too smooth, has no elasticity and can be eroded by acidic pigments.

And this canvas, it's soft and elastic to the touch.

The substrate of the cloth has a unique texture style, and you can feel the feeling of vertical and horizontal weaving of plant fibers.

This is a pure linen canvas.

It's a rare goodie, especially for old paintings.

Even in contemporary times when the textile industry is highly developed, a roll of natural rain and dew linen canvas known as the "Queen of Fibers" can cost up to a few hundred dollars.

Many painters cannot afford to use high-quality pure linen canvases, so they will use cotton or semi-linen blends instead.

The price of a pure linen canvas is several times that of cotton, which is not a small expense for a painter, especially the earlier the painter.

Gu Weijing's spirit lifted,

He looked down at the canvas closely.

This look.

He was stunned again.

Gu Weijing didn't expect that he would be able to see a ...... Such an unusual work.

It is an oil painting in dark tones.

Since its birth, Impressionism has stepped onto the stage of fine arts with a posture of defeating classicism and romanticism.

It opposes any works of religious mythology and the grayish-brown color of the picture.

The painting clearly adopts the technique of impressionism, but the subject matter is the opposite.

The painter depicts an old church in the middle of a thunderstorm.

The whole painting uses a lot of dark light spots, plus the picture is not well preserved and dirty.

Many traces of weathering and cracking of the paint destroy the original harmony of the picture.

It looks like it was fished out of the dirt.

Gu Weijing's first impression of this painting in his hand was a strong sense of disobedience.

It was completely different from any Impressionist work I had ever worked with before.

When I first came into contact with this work, it looked like some clumsy unknown painter, far-fetched, forcibly using impressionist techniques to create out of tune.

But in the next second,

When Gu Weijing admired the painting from beginning to end, he realized that he was wrong.

Because the light and shadow of the painting gave him a sense of familiarity.

Obviously, one of the two paintings is bright in color, and the other is gloomy in light and shadow, but the temperament of this painting reminds him of the "Dance Party at the Pancake Mill" he had just seen before.

It's a kind of sixth sense.

It's inexplicable, but it's real.

He's always had the feeling that ever since he saw the painting "The Dance at the Moulin Mill" that day, when he saw the fantasy of Paris that the picture brings.

Gu Weijing looked at the other impressionist works on the calligraphy and painting plate, and they all had a tasteless and dull feeling.

Those who are fortunate enough to have seen the gluttony of the gods, even if it is only a moment of fragrance between their lips and teeth, it is difficult to be intoxicated by the delicacy of the mortal world.

And this painting ...... It actually brought Gu Weijing a similar feeling of "The Dance Party at the Pancake Mill".

Although the themes are very different, the painter's wanton catharsis of emotions and condensed brushwork are very similar.

The subject matter and color scheme used in this work on the surface seem to be completely unimpressionistic.

But ordinary people look at appearances,

Insiders look at the connotation.

Since appreciating Ray Noah's famous paintings, Gu Weijing has somewhat understood the connotation of impressionism.

"The so-called impressionism is nothing more than the pursuit of inner emotions and pure visual enjoyment, we do not depict gods, we only record sunlight and air. We don't follow dogma, because what is beautiful will remain, and the pain will pass away. ”

At this time, Gu Weijing remembered the confession of the loyal and powerful French man in his mind.

If we talk about the pursuit of inner emotions and pure visual enjoyment -

Although the painting in front of me depicts a church, it is by no means a stereotyped and dogmatic religious didactic painting of the medieval church.

Although it is a thunderstorm in the sky, the color is dark but not oppressive.

Those dots of different colors and messy and uninteresting dots on the picture that are seen up close together are magically changed in the picture.

The originally loose dots converge into light colors and shapes, giving people a beautiful impression.

In particular, the candlelight in the window of the church is about to be lit, which seems to dispel the flames of darkness, and can even bring real warmth.

Such a painting,

If not Impressionism, then what is?

I've really found a treasure!

Gu Weijing judged that this was definitely the best impressionist oil painting he had ever seen today.

Even if it looks dirty and unobtrusive.

But it's still good enough to kill the previous "Mountain in the Snow" that was surrounded by people.

The only question is, how good is it really?

Gu Weijing stood against the booth, and then launched the calligraphy and painting appraisal technique.

Bite......

The illusion of nothingness reappeared in Gu Weijing's mind.

An invisible pen began to paint rapidly on the light curtain in his mind.

The roof of the church, the stained glass windows, the glittering candles......

When the last stroke of the picture fell, a melodious church bell rang out. In the wind and rain, the scattered chants crossed time and space, came from a hundred years ago, and entered Gu Weijing's heart.

"Young man, you have a nosebleed, are you okay?"

Gu Weijing sensed that someone was patting him on the shoulder.

Only then did he recover from his trance.

A middle-aged man holding a thermos cup beside him kindly handed over a roll of paper, and then looked at Gu Weijing with sympathetic eyes for his young body.

Gu Weijing didn't care about the stinging pain in his mind.

He first pushed the oil painting in front of him forward to prevent his nosebleed from dripping onto the drawing paper.

Then he took the toilet paper handed over by the uncle and blocked his nose.

Fortunately, I didn't faint this time.

He rejoiced in his heart.

"Young man, you don't know how to do it. In the calligraphy and painting industry, the emphasis is on eating a bite of fairy peaches rather than a basket of rotten peaches. ”

The thermos cup uncle stretched out his head and glanced curiously at the dirty canvas in front of Gu Weijing.

The uncle suddenly lost interest and shook his head disdainfully, "This kind of rag, no matter how low the price is." I can't sell it if I buy it back, so I just smash the goods in my hand. ”

Gu Weijing looked at the thermos cup with a complicated face, and walked to the side with a very master-style figure-eight step.

He bowed his head,

Details of the painting have already surfaced on the virtual panel.

[Title: "The Old Church in the Rain"]

[Sketch Technique: Lv.7 Master 1st Order]

[Oil Painting Technique: Lv.8 Master 2nd Order]

[Emotion: Feeling in the heart]

"Master Second Order...... It is even higher than Ms. Downing's hundred flowers picture, and even the sketching technique has reached the level of a master...... Who is the author of this painting, and can have such superb painting skills, it should not be unknown in history. ”

"And the church? Why is it a little familiar, it seems to ......"

Just now in the illusion, he saw the church lit by bright candles, and he suddenly felt that this scene was a little familiar.

Gu Weijing had seen a similar scene - it was the [Good Luck Orphanage] that he visited every weekend.

When he first saw this painting, he thought the scene in the painting was somewhat familiar.

It's just that the theme of oil painting is too common, and Impressionism does not pay attention to the details of depicting photographs like pure realism, but rather uses passionate brushwork to express inner subjective feelings.

Although the main building structure of the Good Luck Orphanage has not changed, many of the original small furnishings and decorations on the exterior have long been gone.

This made Gu Weijing not react for a while.

At this time, think carefully,

The photographs in the oil paintings are basically the same as the general structure of the orphanage in my impression.

The biggest difference is the two statues of the Virgin at the entrance of the building in the painting.

This is something that the real-life Good Luck orphanage does not have.

In other words, it is not that there is nothing, but the original two statues of the Virgin at the entrance of the orphanage have long since died in the turmoil of history.

Gu Weijing vaguely remembered that the female director of the Good Luck Orphanage had mentioned the history of the orphanage to herself.

It used to be a church almshouse called "Church of Mother St. Teresa", and there were actually two statues of Our Lady at the entrance of the courtyard.

However, with the beginning of the Anglo-Burmese War in the nineteen-nineties, the church forces and nuns and grandmothers withdrew. One of the two statues was destroyed by shelling during the war, and the other was moved into the courtyard by volunteers.

That is, Gu Weijing saw the statue hanging with the bronze medal of "You Should Love Your Neighbor as Yourself".

"Calculate the time ......"

Gu Weijing's heart skipped a beat.

If the subject of this painting is really a good luck orphanage.

Then it's interesting.

He may have really found the big fish.

This means that the painting was not created in the twentieth century, but in the nineteenth century, or even before the nineteenth and nineties, to be precise.

Half a century earlier and half a century later,

This meant a very different meaning to the Impressionists.

In the painting industry, the first batch of real masters who started their own path under the pressure of public opinion and the ridicule of art critics.

The second group is the Warriors.

The third and fourth batches can only be craftsmen.

Whenever a painting trend rises and the market value is gradually recognized, a group of followers will immediately appear to seize the market.

Impressionism is the founding school of modern art, and there are many painters who follow the trend.

If it was the twentieth century, there were painters who imitated the Impressionist style.

But in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Impressionism was still a work belonging to a niche circle.

The vast majority of nineteenth-century painters who worked in the Impressionist style, with the exception of a few who were unlucky, left their names in the history of art.

The prices of the two are not the same at all.

This painting is a fine work in terms of technique and mood.

Could it be that the author of this painting belongs to one of those few unlucky people?

Gu Weijing carefully checked the paper of the oil paintings, and many painters would sign their names on their official works, or their own special marks.

Of course, there are many exceptions.

Let's say the artist signed his signature on the frame, or it was an exercise work and there was no signature at all.

Gu Weijing originally didn't have much hope for whether he could find the mark to determine the identity of the painter, after all, no matter how unprofessional the second-hand dealers were before, it was impossible to leave a pair of works signed by famous artists.

Unexpectedly,

He actually found the identity of the painter of the painting.

Just behind the paper, the artist signed his name Coral in black ink that was exactly the same as the tone of the painting.

"A female painter?"

The confusion in Gu Weijing's heart immediately had an answer.

Why is it that this painter, despite his superb skills, has not been able to leave his name in history?

Because she's a woman.

Historically, the social status of female painters has been very low for a long time, and the real number of female artists who have become famous has almost always been after World War II.

Historically, many painters' daughters, sisters or wives have actually possessed exquisite painting skills, but only a handful of them have left their names in history.

Moreover, the stories of these artists are often accompanied by tragic elements such as being raped by teachers or patrons.

Gu Weijing firmly remembered the name of this painter and planned to check if he could find relevant information later.

If he could have studied the origin and provenance of the painting, the value of the painting could have doubled.

Even if you can't find it, such a painter with superb painting skills will definitely respect himself.

Gu Weijing took out his bid card and filled in the amount of $2,500 in the tender box on the side.

It's all the cash on yourself.

Although the price of this set of miscellaneous items is only one hundred and fifty dollars, there is a chance to pick up such a treasure if he wants to be greedy and miss it.

Gu Weijing will never forgive himself.

(End of chapter)