The author of this portrait is Jin Shangyi, a famous contemporary oil painter in China. In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, he was admitted to the National Peiping Art College, the predecessor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. However, it was not until he was selected into the “Maximov Oil Painting Training Class” when he took the portrait painter from the former Soviet Union as his teacher, did he first have access to western realistic oil painting and begin to explore the art of portrait painting. From the time when he created At the Forum of Peace and The December Meeting, Jin Shangyi showed his pursuit of the unity of human image and spiritual world in his works. The way of “shaping” rather than “depicting” in his portrait creation is different from contemporary painters in 1950s and 1960s, and also a sign of his further academic progress on the basis of his predecessors’ portrait creation experience.

Since the reform and opening up, China’s private economy has developed rapidly at an unprecedented speed. As becoming the pillar of the national economy, it has also brought up a group of successful entrepreneurs. The success of Chinese entrepreneurs cannot be separated from social progress and development. At the same time, these entrepreneurs consciously devote themselves into the process of national development and social progress with their own abilities, meet the needs of society and promote the progress of the times. This oil painting portrait takes Chen Dongsheng, a contemporary Chinese entrepreneur, as model. In the painting, he is dressed in dark suits, standing upright with hands clasped at his back, and looking directly at viewers in a learned, refined and kind manner. With the transcendental artistic sensitivity, Jin Shangyi captured the wisdom in the eyes of the figure and the calmness and self-confidence revealed by his demeanor, vividly conveying the wisdom of an entrepreneur in strategizing and the grace via his gestures. The portrait not only shapes the public image of entrepreneurs, but also carries forward Chinese people’s entrepreneurial spirit and excellent quality of honesty.

(Edited by Li Hanning & Yang Zhige, 2021)