QI BAISHI (1864-1957).QI BAISHI (1864 – 1957). Squirrel and Grapes, ink and colour on paper, signed Qi Baishi, framed and glazed Chinese painting, 100 x 33.5cm. Provenance: from the collection of Arnaud de Monbrison (1921 – 2006). 齊白石 松鼠葡萄 畫家署簽 設色紙本 鏡框 款識：三百石富翁齊白石畫於京華城西太平橋外。 鈐印：「齊大」。 來源: 阿瑙德戴蒙布里松 (1921 – 2006) 收藏。 This piece presents the confident vitality of Qi Baishi’s later work. Renowned for reaching his mature style only after the age of 60, his most successful very late works blur the boundaries of representation and abstraction. Here the eye is drawn up from the charming squirrel and grapes into the deep well-modulated dark and watery tones of vivid brushwork of the vine leaves and tendrils. The inscription of the work gives the specific location of its creation and makes reference to the former residence of Qi Baishi on Taipingqiao Avenue, west of Beijing, now home to the Qi Baishi Memorial Museum. Qi Baishi was a resident there for 31 years from 1926 until his death in 1957. “The squirrel and grapes” is a theme which Qi returned to time and time again and it is likely that symbolism of a wish for ceaseless generations of sons and grandsons had a deep personal resonance for him in later life. The seal he has chosen for this work, Da Qi, literally ‘oldest of the Qi brothers’, references his status within a wider family structure. As a decorative motif ‘squirrels and grapes’ appeared on metalwork from the Tang dynasty (618-906) and in Chinese painting from the late Yuan (1279 – 1368) and early Ming dynasty. This is a strong example within the artist’s oeuvre of paintings on the theme. An example of a painting with two squirrels with grapes, but less vividly painted, is in the collection of the National Art Museum of China. Other examples include Beijing ChengXuan Auctions spring auction 2011, lot 152 (sold: CYN 6,095,000), Christie’s, 2 June 2015, Fine Chinese Paintings, lot no 1448 (sold: HK$ 1,720,000), Christie’s, 28 March 2013, 28 May 2013, lot 1434 (sold: HK$ 2,070,000) and China Guardian Beijing spring auction 2014, lot 1182 (sold: CNY 4,945,000). Whilst the work represents the apex of artistic innovation within 20th Century art, its collection within the West represents the centre of collecting practices within 20th Century Britain and France. The work formerly belonged to Arnauld de Monbrison, son of Count Hubert Monbrison, son of the creators of the Bordeaux Bridge and in 1939 appointed Secretary General of Help for the Children of Political Refugees (l'OSE). Count Monbrison’s second wife Renée de Monbrison was the sister of Yvonne de Rothschild who was herself married to Anthony Gustav de Rothschild (1887-1961), director of the English Bank in London, a connection partly responsible for the family moving to London in the early 1930s as the situation in Europe worsened. The family’s role in the French resistance is well documented in Vie d'un homme d'hier, aujourd'hui et... juste un peu plus by de Monbrison’s half brother Christian de Monbrison, including their participation in the rescue of previously persecuted Jewish children. Arnaud de Monbrison was the author of four well known texts on high society in France: Châteaux en France (1962), Le Grand Livre de la Chasse (1974), Le cheval, ce seigneur and Tel maître, tel chien (1981).