Artwork Description

Title: Before Playing Chess
Artist: Shaoli Chen
Date: 2015
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 31.5 x 23.6 in (80 x 60 cm)

Artwork Identification:
This elegantly rendered composition, Before Playing Chess, features a nude female figure seated in the foreground, her poise exuding quiet introspection. Behind her, a delicately painted classical Chinese scene unfolds—figures in traditional garb preparing for a game of chess amidst a lush, ornamental garden setting. The painting’s Title: alludes to the timeless ritual of strategic leisure, while the subject’s modern nudity invites an interplay between past and present.

Artistic Style and Influences:
Shaoli Chen masterfully fuses traditional Chinese court painting aesthetics with Western academic nude portraiture. The seated figure is painted with soft yet assured modeling, while the background, echoing the rich tones of Ming and Qing dynasty silk paintings, is executed with exquisite decorative flatness. Chen’s style resonates with a subtle irony and layered historicism, bridging eras and ideologies.

Historical Context:
Created in 2015, this painting is emblematic of the artist’s continued exploration of female identity, cultural continuity, and painterly hybridity. Educated during the post-Cultural Revolution period and active during the resurgence of oil painting in China, Shaoli Chen utilizes Western figurative techniques to explore themes rooted in Chinese literati tradition—offering commentary on both sensuality and intellectualism.

Provenance:
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

Condition and Conservation:
Very good condition. The canvas is taut and the pigment layers are intact with no signs of fading or cracking. The work is presented in an ornate period-style frame, also in excellent condition.

Artistic Significance:
Shaoli Chen’s Before Playing Chess is a vivid example of his ability to harmonize disparate visual languages into a coherent and provocative whole. His positioning of the nude as both subject and spectator within a traditional cultural tableau prompts critical reflection on the roles of women, leisure, and visual culture across time. This piece is an exceptional addition for collectors of Chinese contemporary oil painting and cross-cultural narrative art.