A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 334 The Weird Salon

Fortunately, it is Wang Daxie who directly manages the affairs of foreign students. He adopted a compromise strategy. On the one hand, he condemned and warned the students studying in Japan, but on the other hand, he did not really do anything to the foreign students.

And he also informed the International Students Association about Qiu Jin.

There were already female international students in the hall before, but they were not too old.As for the international students, of course they would not object to female students coming...

Wang Daxie sent a telegram back to Li Yu.

In addition, Li Yu also received telegrams from Lu Xun and Ma Junwu.

Li Yu must have known about Ma Junwu, but he did not expect that he was actually studying chemistry at Imperial College.

I established contact with him, and it happened that I could help introduce Yu Heqin to Japan to study chemistry in the future.

Every time a telegram comes, Li Yu can drink coffee or matcha made by Konoe Zhaoxue.

The key is still the telegram sent from Japan, Konoe Akiyuki is very interested.

Anyway, it wasn't a big deal, so Li Yu put it on the table for her to see.

After knowing the identity of Konoe Zhaoxue, Li Yu felt that he should also catch her, and give some mild information from time to time.

After Jinwei Zhaoxue left, Lu Bicheng came to him with Repin's oil painting.

Lu Bicheng has always cherished this portrait painted by Repin very much. Even though it is not his meticulous work, it is still a master's work, and its standard is still high.

Lu Bicheng said: "When I moved that day, I accidentally knocked a corner of the picture frame, and the oil painting inside was also slightly damaged. What can I do!"

It was quite troublesome to preserve the oil paintings. I didn’t have enough time in Russia at that time, so I just put them in frames.

Because the oil paint is very thick, the surface is actually a bit uneven, which is quite different from traditional Chinese painting. Lu Bicheng really didn't know how to deal with it.

But this question also stumped Li Yu. At least Lu Bicheng knew some Chinese painting, and he only had a little sketching skills in elementary school, so he had no understanding of art at all.

Li Yu scratched his head and couldn't think of any good solution.

It happened that Qiu Jin came to the door.

Li Yu first showed her Wang Daxie's telegram: "Good news! Master Wang Daxie, the chief supervisor of Japanese overseas students, said that you can go to Japan to study, and he also arranged for a representative of Japanese women's school named Utako Shimoda to receive you."

When Li Yu went to Japan, he met Shimoda Utako.

For Qiu Jin, it was definitely great news: "Great! I'll go to sea soon!"

She suddenly saw Lu Bicheng's gloomy and unhappy expression, she went over and asked, "Good sister, what's wrong with you?"

Lu Bicheng pointed to the oil painting in front of him: "This painting is damaged."

Qiu Jin picked it up and took a look, what a guy!He smiled and said, "We all have portraits together? When did it happen?"

Lu Bicheng said: "Don't mention this for now, sister, you should quickly think of a way to fix it."

Qiu Jin said: "It's simple, just find the artist who paints."

Lu Bicheng wondered: "This painter is in St. Petersburg, Russia. Where can I find it?"

"This is difficult," Qiu Jin thought for a while, "But I remember that there are western painters in the capital, and western paintings must be repaired by western painters."

Hearing that there was a solution, Lu Bicheng's frowning brows relaxed a little.

At noon, an American parked in front of Li Yu's mansion in a rickshaw.

"Information, I am the counselor of the US embassy."

Li Yu wondered what the counselor of the American embassy asked him for.But at least he was a diplomat, so I received him in the main hall.

The American Counselor took out an invitation card: "Minister Connor and his wife will hold a salon this evening, and we solemnly invite Mr. Li Yu to participate."

"Salon? What salon?" Li Yu asked.

The U.S. Counselor said: "Mr. Minister, in view of the current situation in Japan, Russia, and your country, hopes to ease the tense atmosphere through the salon."

"Can this be eased?" Li Yu asked puzzled.

The US Counselor said: "In line with Mr. President's open-door policy, it is necessary for us to mediate and mediate the situation in the Far East."

Well, now Laomei wants to be the world's policeman.

However, Li Yu knew well that the United States does not have much say in international relations now, and even seems to be a little transparent, only focusing on making a fortune in silence.

After questioning, I found out that it was the French ambassador who wanted to organize a formal note to mediate the situation between Japan and Russia. Unexpectedly, the envoys from Japan and Russia were at war with each other.

In desperation, let the relatively neutral American Minister Connor organize a cultural salon, invite as many cultural celebrities as possible, and bring together envoys from various countries by the way, first to explore the bottom line of both sides.

The current international relations are very complicated. When it comes to Japan and Russia, which are supposed to be relatively pure, countries are also intriguing.

The most obvious one is the Anglo-Japanese alliance.

There were complex contradictions between Germany and Russia, but in the case of the Russo-Japanese War, Germany was in favor of Russia's eastward advance.The reason is obvious, because Germany hopes that Russia will intensify its conflicts with Britain and Japan, so that it can force Russia to transfer some of its troops on the western front to reduce the pressure.

During the expedition of the Baltic Fleet, Germany was willing to add coal to the Russian fleet.

As for France, it has a French-Russian alliance with Russia.But in view of Germany's position above, France does not want Russia to transfer its troops to the Far East, because once Germany recovers from the Russian-German border, the pressure will be on its side.Therefore, France took a wait-and-see attitude towards Russia's eastward policy.

The United States, of course, continues its "open door" policy, hoping to meddle in China's affairs everywhere.The United States felt that after Russia occupied the Northeast, it would definitely not deal with itself well, and it was better for the British and Japanese to deal with them.Therefore, to a certain extent, it is a bit biased towards the Anglo-Japanese alliance.

In addition, the United States also secretly hopes that they will fight so that they can buy their own weapons and make a lot of war money.

In the final analysis, all countries consider maximizing their own interests, which belongs to a more complicated game model.

The American Counselor said: "Zai Zhenbei from your country will also participate, and he has brought the popular performing artist Yang Xiaolou. In addition, there are ballet dancers from France and opera performing artists from Italy. Generally speaking, it is a very lively cultural salon. But if there is no Mr. Li Yu, there will be a lack of the most important celebrities in the capital."

Li Yu was very clear about what they were thinking, but actually he didn't really want to go.

Qiu Jin asked suddenly: "Is the wife of Minister Connor of your country an oil painter?"

The American Counselor said: "Yes, Madam also painted a portrait of your queen mother."

Dare to paint portraits of Empress Dowager Cixi, he should be a serious oil painter.

Cixi's family is a super beauty-loving person, and she is not happy if she can't draw well.

Qiu Jin said, "Why don't you just go and have a look?"

Li Yu looked forward to seeing Lu Bicheng's eyes, so he agreed: "Okay, let's go and have a meal."

The American embassy is in the south of Dongjiaominxiang Road, opposite to the Russian embassy, ​​flanked by the Dutch embassy and Russia's Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank.

The United States just expanded its embassy last year, and the area has increased a lot.

Zhao Qian drove Li Yu and Lu Bicheng to the embassy, ​​and of course he still held the precious painting.

They came early, and when they came in, they met the wife of American Minister Connor who greeted them.

The staff of the embassy made tea and invited them to sit down. After a while of pleasantries, Li Yu raised the oil painting issue that Lu Bicheng cared about to Madam Connor: "I heard that Madam is an excellent painter, and she even painted a portrait for the Empress Dowager."

Mrs Connor said: "Oh my God, you really brought up a really painful memory for me."

"Painful?" Li Yu asked.

Mrs. Connor took a sip of black tea with a saucer and said, "It's very painful! I don't know if you understand, but actually painting a portrait is not a difficult task. The only difficulty lies in the requirements of the subject for the painting. Once the camera takes pictures according to the Once the shutter is pressed, it cannot be modified, but the oil painting can be changed and modified according to various situations.”

"I understand." Li Yu said.

One of the characteristics of oil painting is that it is easy to modify.

Mrs. Connor said: "The queen mother of your country has too many requirements. Of course it is not acceptable to paint ugly, but it is not acceptable to be too beautiful; it is not acceptable to be too old, and the eyebrows are too curved... In short, there are too many requirements, and the painting process is very difficult. From time to time, I will be interrupted by the ministers who have an audience. When the queen mother sits back in her seat, she is often no longer in the previous posture. Oh, my God, I have been painting a painting for three full weeks! But the queen mother is still not satisfied , I drew four more pictures for her, and finally there was one that the queen mother liked more."

Speaking of which, there are not many portraits painted for the Empress Dowager Cixi. In addition to Mrs. Connor and others, there is also a Dutch painter who once painted a private portrait of Cixi.

After the Dutch painter returned to China, he painted another portrait of Cixi based on his impression.

These paintings have been handed down from generation to generation.Simply considering the artistry, the Dutch painter's memory may be higher, because this one has not been seen by Cixi herself.

Lu Bicheng asked: "If the painted portrait is damaged, is it possible to restore it?"

"Certainly," said Mrs. Connor, "show me."

Lu Bicheng took out Repin's painting, pointed to the corner and said, "Here."

Mrs. Connor said in amazement: "What an excellent painting! Such superb perspective skills, excellent line use and color processing, and the expression of characters' emotions are so natural! I don't know how many times better than me! Whose is this? Handwriting?"

Li Yu said, "It's Repin, a painter from St. Petersburg."

Mrs. Connor said: "My God, it turned out to be him! Today's salon can invite a painting by a top Russian artist, which really surprises me."

After Mrs. Connor said it, Lu Bicheng believed in how precious this painting is, so he asked, "Is it difficult to restore?"

Mrs. Connor looked at the painting carefully: "Fortunately, it's just the corners, otherwise I really wouldn't dare to do it."

Lu Bicheng let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you Ma'am."

Anyway, I really need to learn how to maintain oil paintings in the future, even if they are not painted by Repin, the paintings themselves are of great significance to me.

(End of this chapter)