The Versatile Master Artist

Aunt finally couldn’t hold back.

She slammed her palm down on the table with a bang, causing the tea cup lid next to it to jump slightly.

With such good conditions, Aunt has no idea why the old man is still putting on airs.

At first, she quietly murmured in her heart, suspecting it was a new trick by a Northern Myanmar scam garden to hire actors for a kidnapping scheme.

Now, seeing a whole briefcase full of cash laid out before her, Aunt finally had no doubts.

The pie that fell from the sky hit her on the head,

if you don’t sign, you’re not human.

”How about a ten-year contract?” Gu Tongxiang was still hesitating, pondering.

”Twenty years.”

Hanks displayed a very firm expression, leaving no room for negotiation in his tone, ”There’s nothing to discuss about this, you can think it over first.”

”And even if you agree to these terms, before signing the contract, I have an additional request. Your family runs a gallery, is there a studio here where Gu Weijing usually paints?”

He wanted to scrutinize a few more pieces of Gu Weijing’s artwork.

People recommended by Professor Yajima pose little risk of forgery.

Hanks still wanted to verify in advance that the piece that left a particularly deep impression on him was indeed painted by Gu Weijing without a doubt.

Gu Weijing’s works and his grandfather Gu Tongxiang’s paintings exhibit similar technique levels.

If it turned out to be another case of a grandfather helping a grandson paint, that would be quite amusing.

Gu Tongxiang was not opposed to this.

”Please wait a moment, I’ll take you to our family studio, there should be a few of my grandson’s paintings there.” Gu Tongxiang nodded.

Just as they exited the study room door,

Aunt couldn’t help but lean over to the old man’s ear, whispering anxiously: ”Dad, what are you thinking? Opportunities like this don’t come twice. Listen, ten thousand dollars a year, you don’t have to do anything, and they’ll pay to support your grandson for free.”

”Not to mention the signing fees you can collect. Gu Lin and Gu Weijing are both graduating this year, studying abroad is expensive. Dad, let me tell you, my daughter can’t be raised poorly, if a girl doesn’t have enough living expenses, what if she gets deceived by a foreign man.”

The middle-aged woman continued her endless chatter.

”But it’s not like you can do nothing and take money for free... You just don’t understand. This money is a drop in the bucket for Ma Shi Gallery, they want to buy Weijing’s future twenty years of decision-making rights with this sum.” Gu Tongxiang glanced over, looking at his daughter-in-law who was nearly bewitched by that large briefcase of cash, and spoke helplessly.

”Decision-making rights, if someone wants to sign me, I would love to sign for a hundred or even eighty years! Honestly, I should have let Xiaolin learn painting as well, this field is so popular now.” Aunt expressed dissatisfaction with her father-in-law’s indecisiveness.

”Alright, let’s wait until Weijing returns to discuss. You go downstairs and give Weijing another call, hurry him up.” Gu Tongxiang sent his daughter-in-law off.

The small studio at the back of the Gu’s Painting and Calligraphy Gallery on the first floor is a small hall of about forty square meters, decked with thick polyester curtains.

Exposure to strong ultraviolet rays for a long time would cause oil painting’s surface pigment to deteriorate or crack, hence oil paintings shouldn’t be exposed to sunlight but rather stored in indoor shadow areas.

All completed works by Gu Weijing, except for a few which were provided to Scholastic Group, are usually placed against the wall in the family studio after completion, to dry in the shade.

If one wants long-term preservation.

Once completely dry, a layer of protective varnish is brushed on the pigment surface, framed or rolled up in a storage tube. If deemed unnecessary, the paint is scraped off for reuse.

”That’s it.”

Hanks flipped over a small easel leaning against the wall in the studio, the first painting he saw was the one he saw a few days ago on Professor Yajima’s phone.

At the time, the photo showed just a base image, now the draft has been completely finished.

Seeing the authentic original piece in person,

Hanks immediately felt an entirely different sensation in his heart.

”The lines are elegant and the brushstrokes are fresh, it’s certainly very good,” he secretly nodded in his heart, but his face displayed only a mediocre expression.

After looking for a while, he took out a black card-camera lens-like square box from his pocket.

Aditech Company’s 3R-MSA600S model painting art appraisal portable microscope.

A hawthorn biscuit-light little item, sold for 2000 dollars on Amazon each.

This gadget is usually used to observe and compare the signatures of the same artist in different works to confirm the authenticity of the paintings.

Supports 5x, 30x, 200x zoom.

Hanks attached the microscope to the phone case, connecting the small tail below it to the phone’s charging port via a type-C interface.

He selected the camera image, examining the canvas bit by bit.

Then, in front of Gu Tongxiang, he let the translator place the three paintings he picked from the downstairs gallery next to each other.

”It shouldn’t be ghostwritten.”

Hanks secretly nodded.

A normal appreciation doesn’t require a microscope.

He was just verifying the writing habits of both Gu Weijing and Gu Tongxiang.

Like handwriting verification for letters, artists have brushwork verification for paintings.

The outline treatment of characters’ expressions, the clockwise or counterclockwise brush strokes for color blocks at edges and corners... Some academic theories now believe that these tiny details are more effective than signatures in identifying the artist of a painting.

Regarding Da Vinci’s painting, ”Savior,” which auctioned for five billion dollars, experts from the National Gallery used similar methods to compare it against ”Benoit’s Madonna” and ”Lady with a Mink,” two historically verified Da Vinci authentic works, for handstyle identification during authenticity judgment.