As early as in the 1920s when Lin returned to his homeland he had endeavored to present his art as a form of affection and willful care for the society. "I have walked into the street to picture our laborers", he recalled. His survey of reality, and realism, persisted even in the 40s and 50s. In Fishermen Setting Out (Lot 1221), which depicts the lives of fishermen, lines are used not in the exquisite, taciturn way as in his later portraits of lady but in a fluent and neat manner. The smooth and clean brushwork, the open and clear twisting, as well as the multiple and hollow strokes all reveal the unencumbered, lighthearted state of mind of the artist when producing the work. The foreground and the middle scenery are densely inked and polished with opaque pigments; the river and the sky, however, are layered with washes of thin ink, creating a resonance in the work for its touch of heaviness and lightness. Villager (Lot 1223), Potter (Lot 1222) and Builder (Lot 1224) put in view the working routine of laborers, which is narrated by simple and candid lines. Focus is drawn on their activities - their actions and efforts, in other words - for the purpose of which their facial details are roughly revealed. The artist's attention lies apparently on the people instead of an individual, and his intention is one to express his understanding and concern for them, as he said: "I believe an artist who severs himself from lives, that is, from the people of his society, creates nothing but useless things. "The vivid fruit, pottery and woodwork are set on the foreground, allowing the audience to get in touch with the lives of these farmers and laborers, whose ingenuous, unrefined figurations are blended with concrete, varying colors. Fishermen Setting Out, Villager, Potter and Builder are not only an encapsulation of the lives of these workmen but also an articulation of the artist's understanding and contemplation of their "state of existence". By walking into the society, Lin accredits the presence regardless of the limited duration of individual existence, unveiling his observations of the society and the people in rich shades and plain strokes. Such positive, even zealous, expression keeps on fire the Confucian spirit central to Chinese philosophy for more than two thousand years, and reflects, in not a few aspects, the faces of China amid reformation.

Another Landscape ( Lot 1225) by Lin exhibits a peculiar composition. He takes a bird's eye view in the portrayal of the mountain and the cottage, while the wreaths of mist, realized by the implement of empty spaces akin to Lin's early works, obscures the distance between them. The distant, soaring mountains stand as a starling contrast to the narrow slope and the small cottage, and the impression of an extensive space is further deepened by the vast hazy sky. Yet another Landscape (Lot 1225), a rarity of Lin's productions, is composed of a single-point perspective. Just as the female body in the foreground is simplified into geometric shape, the use of such basic formal elements like point, line and plane reflect the artist's analysis of the subtle structure of objects. Nude (Lot 1225), which depicts female body with curves and arcs forthright, is clearly directed after Matisse. Here Lin's dexterous use of inflected brushstrokes underscores the curvaceous body of the nude and, interacting with the black wash in the background, exudes an acute Oriental mood. On quite a different note, Egrets Flying over Reeds (Lot 1126) and Landscape (Lot 1127) illustrate the consummate skills of Lin in handling the discordant black and white, solid and void, as well as transparency and translucency. Landscape, with its almost parallel form of composition, describes a placid scene composed primarily of the sandbank, the river and the sky. The ink color-applied thickly or thinly, with a dampish or dry touch-coincides with pale white in layers, construing up a deep sense of space in which the sweeping, extensive seascape is swathed under a distant sky. In Egrets Flying over Reeds, the seemingly tranquil landscape is, with the fluttering Egrets and the wagging reeds, charged with dynamics. Following the wind, a parade of Egrets flies levelly to the left while the reeds lean to the right; the opposite direction furnishes the work with a rich dramatic effect, the tension in which enhances its orderly rhythm and melody.