All About Put Down Your Whip by Xu Beihong

Title of Artwork: “Put Down Your Whip”

Artwork by Xu Beihong

Year Created 1939

Summary of Put Down Your Whip

A 1939 oil painting by Chinese Realism artist Xu Beihong is titled Put Down Your Whip. Before its disappearance from the public eye in 1954, Xu completed the painting during his stay in Singapore. On April 7, 2007, it was auctioned in Hong Kong and sold for HK $7.2 million (US $ 9.2 million), setting a record for the highest price ever paid in an auction for a Chinese painting.

All About Put Down Your Whip

Xu Beihong was inspired by Wang Ying’s Put Down Your Whip performance during a trip to Singapore in October 1939, a friend of Xu’s. After escaping from Japanese-occupied northeastern China with her father, Tian Han wrote a play about their experiences as street performers. It was through their songs that the Japanese Occupation hardships were conveyed and their listeners were encouraged to support the war against Japan. Xu spent ten days painting a life-size portrait of Wang with her audience in the background as she was deeply affected by the drama. After the drama, he titled the painting Put Your Whip Down.

Throughout Xu’s life, the painting was frequently displayed. Since his death in 1954, it has been out of the public eye. Sotheby’s Asia chairman Patti Wong claims that Xu Menggui, a close friend of Xu’s, was given the painting by Xu. Upon Huang’s death, his heirs sought to have his painting donated to Singapore’s National Museum, but for reasons that remain unclear, this did not happen. Tan Tsze Chor, a Singaporean collector, was approached by Huang’s descendants, but he died unexpectedly before the deal could be completed. Finally, in 2007, the painting was put up for auction by an anonymous Asian collector. Sotheby’s auction house in Hong Kong sold Put Down Your Whip for HK$72 million (US$9.2 million) on April 7, 2007, making it the most expensive Chinese painting ever sold at auction. There were at least four other bidders for the painting, which was purchased by an anonymous collector via telephone. A number of art historians have reacted angrily to the auction by criticising the skyrocketing prices of Asian art, blaming it in part on overexcited buyers. In response, the chairman of Sotheby’s Asia Patti Wong said that Xu’s Put Down Your Whip would have sold well in any market.