Artist

Bai Xueshi

Chinese, 1915 to 2011

Ink and color landscape painting

Bai Xueshi was a leading figure in twentieth-century Chinese landscape painting, known for ink and color depictions of mountain and river scenery developed over decades of travel and teaching in the People's Republic of China. He is counted among the small group of deceased Chinese artists whose representative works are restricted from leaving the country, a marker of institutional and national significance. For collectors, his market is real but thinly documented at auction, which makes careful, source-by-source verification essential.

Nationality
Chinese
Media
Ink and color landscape painting
Movement
Traditional Chinese landscape painting, guohua
Education
No documented record of formal schooling. Taught at Beijing Art Normal College, 1954 to 1963, and the Academy of Art and Crafts, Beijing (C.A.A.C.), 1964 to 1984.
Signature motifs
Ink and color landscape painting, Mountain and river scenery of Huangshan, Taishan, and the Three Gorges
  • USD 866,610Auction highSpring Mountain, China Guardian Auctions, Beijing, 2021
  • 1915 to 2011LifespanBorn and died in Beijing, China
  • 1954 to 1984Teaching careerBeijing Art Normal College; Academy of Art and Crafts, Beijing

Bai Xueshi (白雪石) was born in Beijing, China, in 1915 and began painting in childhood. After 1949 he traveled extensively to sites including the Huangshan Mountains, Mount Taishan, and the Three Gorges region to develop his landscape subjects, working in the ink and color tradition of Chinese painting. No detailed record of his own formal schooling, institutions, degrees, or years, has been located in available sources; what is documented instead is a long teaching career. He taught at Beijing Art Normal College from 1954 to 1963, then served as a professor at the Academy of Art and Crafts in Beijing (C.A.A.C.) from 1964 to 1984.

Bai Xueshi died in Beijing on April 22, 2011, at the age of 96, according to a detailed biographical account; his death year of 2011 is corroborated by additional sources, though the exact date is drawn from a single, more detailed source and should be treated with that caveat. He is named in Global Times among Chinese artists whose representative works are subject to Chinese export restriction.

No verifiable, exact critic quotations about Bai Xueshi in named major outlets were located in available sources, so none are reproduced here. His institutional standing is best evidenced by his inclusion in the Long Museum's survey exhibition of twentieth-century Chinese landscape painting, and by his listing among artists whose representative works face Chinese export restriction. No comprehensive, verifiable list of named awards or a detailed exhibition chronology could be reconstructed from the sources reviewed; broader claims of extensive national and international exhibition history appear in dealer biographies but could not be separated with confidence from composite, multi-artist listings.

Bai Xueshi's recorded auction high is Spring Mountain, which sold for USD 866,610 at China Guardian Auctions in Beijing in 2021; the exact calendar date of that sale was not specified in the source consulted, and no independent auction house record was found to corroborate the figure directly. Market data for the artist otherwise shows a wide spread, with realized prices reported from USD 77 to USD 866,610 depending on the work, and separate estimates in the range of EUR 50,000 to 70,000 cited for certain pieces, a figure that is not directly comparable to the realized-price data. Collectors should treat this as a single-source record pending further corroboration.

Top auction results

WorkPriceSale
Spring Mountain (2021)USD 866,610China Guardian Auctions, Beijing

Selected exhibitions

YearsExhibitionVenues
Undated, in view as of 2026Zhi Shui Ren Shan: Special Exhibition of Chinese Landscape Paintings from the Long Museum CollectionLong Museum, West Bund, Shanghai

Museum collections

  • Long Museum, West Bund, Shanghai
  • Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing

Authentication and provenance

No catalogue raisonne.

No catalogue raisonne or certificate of authenticity program has been identified for this artist. He is named among Chinese painters whose representative works are subject to export restriction from China, per Global Times, and market verification for his work relies on the cataloguing practices of major auction houses such as China Guardian, Christie's, and Sotheby's.

Primary reference: https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Bai-Xueshi/797C3FC035487CD5/Biography

Bai Xueshi's market rests on a single well-documented auction high and a wide, thinly populated price range, so any one result should be read with caution rather than as evidence of a smooth trend. No catalogue raisonne or certificate of authenticity program has been identified, and current gallery or estate representation could not be confirmed, which puts additional weight on auction house cataloguing and provenance when evaluating a specific work. Buyers should also be aware that some of his representative works may be subject to Chinese export restriction, a factor that can affect a work's ability to leave the country after sale.

Data current as of 2026-07-13.

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