Sha Qi is one of the early famous oil-painters in China. He has spent 9 years in learning painting at the Shanghai Changming College of Art, Shanghai School of Fine Arts, Hangzhou National College of Art and the Arts Department of Central University when he was young, under the instructions of renowned masters like Xu Beihong, Liu Haisu and Lin Fengmian. In 1937, Sha was introduced by Xu Beihong to study at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Belgium as a self-funded student and he was then admitted to the studio of Professor A. Bastien, who was a prominent artist at that time. Sha graduated with outstanding results in 1939 and won the Gold Medal of Excellency in Fine Arts. Unlike the first and second generations of Chinese artists who have studied in Eruope, Sha decided to stay in Belgium after graduation, a place where he could feel the richness and freedom in art, and develop his painting skills as well as enhancing his self-cultivation in art.
In the early 1940s, Sha Qi participated actively in various exhibitions held in Belgium and his works were displayed in Atriome with works of distinguished artists like Piccasso. His masterpiece The Girl with a Flute was collected by Queen Elizabeth of Belgium during the exhibition in Petite Galerie. In 1941-1945, Sha held exhibitions in different places such as La Petite Galerie, La Galerie du R?gent and La Galerie G. Giroux where he earned wide acclaim for his works. At the end of 1945, Sha traveled to England and Netherlands to do sketching. However, he returned to China in the following year due to his illness which marked the end of his European life.
The days in Belgium were the most proliferous period of Sha as an artist. Most of his earlier works were given to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum by his family as collection and some of his works were also kept in the National Art Museum of China. The auctioned works, Flowers and Vase (Lot 1159) and White Chrysanthemum and Vase (Lot 1160) are significant witnesses of this period. There is even a label of the train in Belgium adhered to the back of the Flowers and Vase with the date "12 V 1945". Although Sha went to Belgium with the knowledge of realism in Chinese society taught by Xu Beihong, he did not limit himself to what he has learned but to further explore the deepest part of realism and even modernism in art. The two still-life paintings, Flowers and Vase and White Chrysanthemum and Vase showed solid techniques of realism, but at the same time, they were filled with humanity, romance and philosophy of neorealism of Vel?zquez and Goya. The two flower paintings were drawn with a dark background, in contrast to the Chrysanthemum in white and orange, flushing with a strong sense of life. The spatial depth is brought out by the light with layers and layers of brown, grey and blackish green in various color tones. Sha's sense of light can be seen from the two tiny bits of white paint on the fa?ade of the vase. It shows how the painter was aware of the natural reflection of the light on the porcelain vase. The oil brushstrokes of Sha are attributed to the influence of his father when Sha learned the fine brushstrokes in drawing traditional Chinese flowers and birds when he was a child. This explains how Sha painted the petals in a delicate and detailed way. The growing flowers in different directions in the upper part of the painting are ingeniously balanced by a loose and soft cloth in greyish white placed under the vase with smooth lines. The spirit and beauty of the flowers are well displayed through the vivid sense of life in the intricate yet orderly petals painted in the stable framework. The Flowers and Vase and White Chrysanthemum and Vase remind us once again the contribution of this avant-garde artist, Sha Qi, to the development of Chinese oil painting, as well as introducing his earlier masterpieces to the public in a broader sense.