Oil on canvas

64.5 x 80 cm. 25 3/8 x 31 1/2 in.

Signed in Pinyin and Chinese on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

Unforgettable Countryside Snow
Nie Ou obtained her master's from the Chinese Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1981. In 1984, she won the Bronze Award at the 6th National Exhibition of Fine Arts for the picture book Life, which was later collected by the China Art Museum, and since then, her talent has been recognized in various art circles. Her later works appeared in collections of many important international art institutions such as the British Museum, the University of Hong Kong, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
When Nie was a child, she lived in a small town outside the Yanmen Pass on the Loess Plateau in Northern China. The themes of her works are thus always inseparable from rural life. Perhaps due to her being female, she is good at observing things with a gentle eye. The scenes in her paintings feature soft, delicate colors, and the characters always show a sense of innocence and purity. Painting therefore allows her to freeze the beauty of a quiet country life.
A Girl in the Snow, the object of this auction, belongs to the same series as her oil painting In the Snow, which joined the University of Hong Kong collection in 1994. This painting depicts winter scenery, namely rice fields outside of a village covered in snow. Nie only used three simple colors: white, gray, and light brown. Large white areas in the lower and upper parts of the painting represent the sky and the snow, not only creating visual balance, but also a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Moreover, the artist portrays young girls, a donkey, a haystack, and earthen jars in gray and brown colors, with white accents which indicate the changes between light and shade, adding more volume.
The dense lines used to paint the main objects of the picture form a mottled effect, contrasting with the single color plane used to show the sky, highlighting the difference between motion and non-motion. The snow is expressed with many shades of white, creating an illusion of snowflakes dancing in the winter air. Touches of red are visible on the girls, showing their youth and beauty, and adding warmth and softness to the otherwise cold scenery.

Price estimate:
HKD: 50,000 - 80,000
USD: 6,400 - 10,200

Auction Result:
HKD : 100,300