30,000 precious collections were donated to Mei’s relatives
Entering the Siheyuan Memorial Hall, facing a screen wall of gray bricks and gray tiles, there is a bust of Mei Lanfang.
There are 32,421 precious collections in the museum, most of which were donated by Mei Lanfang’s relatives, including scripts, books, photos, playbills, calligraphy and paintings, letters, objects, etc. Most of them have cultural relic value. For example, many Qing Dynasty manuscripts in the script are rare or unique copies. Photos of Mei Lanfang himself and some famous veteran artists in casual clothes and theater costumes over the years, photos of Mei Lanfang with famous foreign dramatists, and playlists performed in various theaters or halls from the late Qing Dynasty to modern times are all extremely precious.
Among the calligraphy and paintings in the collection, there are works by famous calligraphers and painters from the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and contemporary times such as Wu Changshuo, Chen Shizeng, Chen Baochen, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian and others. There are also many paintings by Mei Lanfang. In addition, there are also the huge oil painting "Luo Shen" painted for Mei Lanfang by the contemporary Indian painting saint Nanda Vastu, a painting presented to Mei by the famous Japanese painter Watanabe Watanabe, and a round fan with poems written by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Master Mei Lanfang collected quite a lot of paintings throughout his life. He also has a deep connection with painting. As early as in his youth, Mei Lanfang went to Shanghai to perform for the first time. In Shanghai, he met the old painter Wu Changshuo and became a lifelong friend. At that time, Mr. Wu gave Mei Lanfang a plum blossom painting, which aroused Mr. Mei's interest in painting. After returning to Beijing, she first began to learn painting from the famous painter Wang Mengbai. Mr. Wang gave lessons on time, teaching Mei how to paint flowers, feathers, grass and insects, landscapes, figures, etc.
Mei Lanfang believes that the patterns and colors of the paintings can serve as a reference for improvements in theatrical costume design and makeup techniques. At the same time, painting can also improve one's artistic accomplishment. In addition, the relationship between virtuality and reality, simplicity and complexity, sparseness and density in Chinese paintings. But this is by no means an overnight success and requires long-term practice. Therefore, Mr. Mei studied and observed painting when he had time, and worked as hard as acting. Mei Lanfang also got acquainted with many famous painters, and had frequent contacts with them as teachers and friends. In his early years, he often gathered at Zhui Yuxuan's study room in his old residence in Wuliangdaren Hutong, Dongcheng, Beijing, to discuss painting techniques. Mei Lanfang immediately asked them for advice and learned painting techniques. After that, Mr. Mei became more and more interested in painting. He wanted to paint everything he saw. Later, a close friend of his advised him that the main purpose of learning painting is to enjoy it and to find some help for drama. It should be a part-time course. Spending more time on painting will affect the progress of your acting and is not worth the gain. Mr. Mei accepted this opinion and started painting as a pastime and to refresh his mind.
However, during the Anti-Japanese War, Mr. Mei took a break from the stage and often painted to entertain himself. At that time, because he had no financial resources, his life gradually fell into trouble. A year or two before the victory, several painters suggested that he hold an exhibition to sell his paintings. The income from paintings supports him. Mr. Mei then actively painted day and night for a year. Thanks to the support and encouragement of the painters, a painting exhibition co-organized with Mr. Ye Yuhu was held in the spring of 1945. The exhibition was quite successful. Mentioning Mr. Mei’s collection of paintings comes from several sources.
His grandfather, Mei Qiaoling, one of the Thirteen Famous Actors in Tongguang, in addition to acting, was also an artist who was good at calligraphy, as well as identifying epigraphy, stone, and antiques. Although his father Mei Zhufen died young, he also loved calligraphy and painting during his lifetime, so he left behind many paintings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Mei Lanfang's relatives and friends knew that he loved painting, and they often bought paintings as gifts during their interactions; I Those who are good at painting will often paint their own works as gifts when there are happy events in Mei's house. Mr. Mei visited Japan many times, and some Japanese painters used Chinese painting methods to give Mr. Mei paintings as souvenirs. In addition, most of the collections are Famous modern painters painted and presented them in person. Therefore, the paintings collected by Mei Lanfang can be said to be all-encompassing, including ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, and many of them are exquisite. There are two kinds of images that are more common in the works, plum blossoms and birds. One is because Mr. Mei loves plum blossoms; the other is because Mr. Mei was born in the year of Jiawu and his zodiac sign is Horse.