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

Chapter 568 Buying Paintings

After the auction, Picasso and his agent Kahnweiler happily met with Li Yu.

"It turns out to be an Oriental." Picasso said.

His agent Kahnweiler complimented: "You are really a connoisseur who understands art!"

Li Yu said: "I'm just a layman."

Kahnweiler said: "You are humble. Appreciation of art is innate."

Little Louis introduced Picasso and Kahnweiler: "In front of them is the brightest star in today's scientific world, Mr. Li Yu from the mysterious East."

"It turns out to be you! It's really surprising!" Picasso said, "It also reminded me of the math problems I couldn't understand when I was young."

Li Yu smiled and said: "Science and art are both great and priceless."

"I like this sentence!" Picasso said happily, "Can I invite you to dinner?"

"Of course." Li Yu said.

Picasso and his agent were in a good mood and booked a high-end restaurant.

When Li Yu arrived, Picasso happened to come to the restaurant with his new female companion.

I don’t know how many women Picasso had sex with in his life - he really can’t count them. He had so many relatively stable lovers that he couldn’t count them on two hands.

Almost half of later biographies about Picasso's life are devoted to his emotional stories with various women, which looks like a stallion novel.

——It does feel very incredible. Picasso changed lovers as casually as he changed bed sheets. The title of "Neptune" in the early 20th century must be Picasso.

And if you ask which of so many women is Lao Bi's favorite, the woman named Eva in front of him is probably the most likely.

Moreover... Eva was poached by Lao Bi from his friends.

It took the cuckolded friend a long time to free himself from the pain, and then published a cartoon in "Paris Life". In the painting, Picasso locked a heavy iron chain on himself, and the friend was beside him. Look on with gloating.

However, by this time Eva had already contracted a serious form of tuberculosis, and her life had entered a countdown.

In addition, while he was getting along with Eva, Picasso also took time out of his busy schedule to hook up with the wife of a Russian nobleman for a while, and at the same time he developed a love for Russian culture.

Picasso told Li Yu: "I have seen several Chinese paintings, and the mysterious brush technique amazed me."

Li Yu said: "Art has no national boundaries, and everyone thinks good things are good."

Picasso's agent Kahnweiler had an extremely keen sense of business and suddenly said: "Mr. Academician, are you interested in purchasing a few more paintings by Mr. Picasso?"

Li Yu said casually: "If you like it, you can buy a few more."

Kahnweiler said: "After the meal, I took my husband to visit."

He deliberately took this opportunity to raise Picasso's worth.

Anyway, Picasso had no shortage of works. He painted tens of thousands of paintings in his lifetime.

And unlike the Shiquan old man Qianlong who wrote tens of thousands of poems as casually as boiled water, Picasso's artistic attainments are quite high, and many of his paintings are valuable.

During the chat, Picasso heard that Li Yugang had visited the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre, so he said: "When this painting was stolen two years ago, I was shocked and thought I was involved."

Li Yu wondered: "What does it have to do with you?"

Picasso said: "Shortly after the theft, a man claimed to have stolen the Mona Lisa and showed a newspaper editor a small Iberian sculpture he had stolen from the Louvre. As it happened, I had previously bought two sculptures stolen from the Louvre from him.”

"So it's so easy to steal things from the Louvre? It sounds like it has happened many times," Li Yu then asked, "Did you know at that time that these two sculptures came from the Louvre?"

Picasso shook his head: "I only knew that they came from the wrong place, but I didn't know that they were stolen from the Louvre. I couldn't believe that the person who sold me the sculptures kept saying that he had stolen the Mona. Lisa” because this painting is not comparable to a small sculpture lying haphazardly in a warehouse.”

Li Yu said: "Eighty percent of this person just wants to be famous and become a 'thief saint'."

Picasso said: "Perhaps it was this mentality, but his words successfully attracted the attention of the police. Not long after, he confessed to me. Fortunately, the matter was not serious and I was not put in jail."

After eating, they went to Picasso's house, which was filled with paints and paintings.

Li Yu took out his camera and asked, "Can I take some photos?"

Picasso said: "Whatever."

After Li Yu took a few photos, Picasso observed his camera and said, "How can today's portable cameras be so small?"

Li Yu handed him the camera: "Kodak's latest model may not be long before similar products are available in Germany."

Picasso played with the camera for a while and said: "Eight years ago, I got a box camera with a cracked lens from a friend, which was more than twice the size of this one. It was the photos taken by that broken camera that inspired me to create I created a painting with a style that even I find novel.”

Li Yu asked: "Which painting can you appreciate?"

Picasso took him to a showroom, pointed to a large painting and said, "That's it."

Li Yu recognized the painting and blurted out: ""Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"!"

This painting was Picasso's first step towards Cubism and is of great significance.

Picasso was surprised: "Mr. Academician actually knows this painting?! When it was exhibited, it received a lot of criticism. Mr. Matisse once ridiculed it as 'just some small cubes'."

Matisse, the representative painter of Fauvism, was only a dozen years older than Picasso. It was his mockery that gave rise to the name "Cubism".

Matisse really didn't like Cubism at this time, thinking it was an extremely barbaric satire of modern art.

However, the development speed of Cubism was beyond imagination. Three years after the publication of "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", a German art dealer and banker held a Cubist exhibition, which was a great success. Cubism gained a lot of popularity. supporter.

Li Yu asked: "Is this painting for sale?"

Picasso said: "If you like it and give it a suitable price, of course you can sell it."

Li Yu asked again: "What's the price?"

Picasso's art agent Kahnweiler thought for a moment, raised two fingers and said: "2 francs."

"make a deal."

Li Yu didn't hesitate at all.

Picasso and Kahnweiler were happy to sell paintings at high prices, which would not bring much benefit to their future career development. Picasso was not only a passionate "stallion", but also a workaholic who could continuously output high-quality paintings. If there were good sales channels, Picasso would soon become a top painter with both fame and fortune. For any painter, Can't get it.

Li Yu then selected a few more conventional paintings, all of which would cost tens of millions of dollars in later generations.

At this time, Picasso's lover Eva suddenly began to cough up blood. Picasso was very concerned about Eva and apologized to Li Yu repeatedly before going out and calling a taxi to take her to the hospital.

While Eva was hospitalized, Picasso fell in love with a model from the United States. ——If you know more about Picasso’s love history, this kind of thing will be almost normal.

Li Yu then left. This trip was full of rewards.

To be honest, Li Yu has no hobby of collecting art. He simply feels that foreigners have taken away too many good things from China, so he has to rely on information to collect more, which will be of great use in the future.

-

After leaving Picasso's residence, Li Yu just returned to the hotel lobby and saw an old man waiting here.

"You are finally back, Mr. Li Yu. I am Gustave Eiffel," the other party said.

"Nice to meet you!"

Li Yu invited him to a reception room in the hotel.

Gustave Eiffel added: "Did the previous wind tunnel data help?"

Li Yu said: "It's very helpful. Thank you very much for this."

"No need to thank you in a hurry," Eiffel said. "In order to preserve the Eiffel Tower, the military hopes to use it to conduct radio communication tests. You are an expert in this area, so I am here to ask for advice."

Many people suggested demolishing the Eiffel Tower a few years ago. At first glance, this building is indeed completely different from the surrounding style. There are countless cultural celebrities who want to demolish it. If the military hadn't stopped it, it might have been sold as scrap metal. Lose.

Li Yu said: "Radio works better in high places. Whether it is broadcasting or signal interception, it has unparalleled advantages. The 300-meter-high Eiffel Tower is a good choice."

Eiffel said happily: "This makes me feel relieved."

Li Yu asked: "Sir, you don't want it to be demolished either?"

Eiffel said: "Each work is like my child, and it certainly doesn't feel good to see it being torn down."

"I understand how you feel." Li Yu said, and then asked about things related to the wind tunnel.

Eiffel said confidently: "I will compile a copy of the detailed data and send it to Sir."

Li Yu said: "Thank you very much this time!"

When Li Yu invited Eiffel to dinner in the evening, he called another old man, Gallieni.

This veteran general who commanded the French army to win the crucial Battle of the Marne in the early days of World War I was actually ready to retire and quickly use his light and heat while still in office.

"Mr. Li Yu, we want to purchase a batch of high-power radio equipment," Gallieni said. "My friend Mr. Eiffel must have told you about this."

Li Yu said: "Yes, general, the equipment can be purchased through regular civilian contracts. As for how you use it, it is beyond my consideration."

Gallieni said: "Sir is indeed a smart man. Germany believes that it has the best technology, but we will not show weakness, especially we will not let the Germans' quick victory plan succeed."

Li Yu thought to himself, it turns out you know everything.

The First World War did not start suddenly. Sarajevo was just a trigger. The real reason was that everyone wanted to fight and had been preparing for it for many years.

As early as 1906, the German commander-in-chief Schlieffen formulated the Schlieffen Plan. Simply put, it was to concentrate superior forces and conquer France within six weeks via Belgium. Taking advantage of this period, Russia was unable to gather troops, and then mobilized its large forces after destroying France. Go to the east.

This is easy to understand: because Germany's logistics cannot supply two million troops for long-term operations, the army can eat up the entire government budget in three months, and all strategic reserves in six months.

Therefore blitzkrieg was Germany's only way out.

But what everyone should pay more attention to is that the Schlieffen Plan is not a secret in Europe, almost everyone knows it.

France, Germany's greatest enemy, had long been on guard.

Since the humiliating cession of the Alsace-Lorraine region during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, France has lost the natural barrier of the Vosges Mountains and has had to spend huge sums of money to build concrete defense lines, including four strong fortresses: Belfort, Eureka. Pinard, Tulle and Verdun.

But just like the Maginot Line in World War II later, the purpose was not to resist the German army, but to force Germany to bypass the north.

To the north of the German-French border are the three low-lying countries of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. They are very important to Britain's strategic position and have always been regarded by Britain as its own sphere of influence. To move these three countries is to move Britain.

Therefore, France just let Germany take this path, thereby forcing Britain to end.

Of course, Belgium is not stupid and cannot let others treat itself as a victim, so it also built strong fortresses, such as the famous Liege Fortress.

Li Yu casually reminded: "Whether the general is considering purchasing various radio equipment, it is not just for my family."

"Naturally, we will buy all types of radio equipment on the market, including German products," Gallieni said.

It can only be said that Gallieni was prescient.

This is indeed the case historically. During World War I, the French army had a small advantage in the field of communications.

However, this advantage is not enough to change the French army's huge conceptual disadvantage.

The French army's tactical philosophy was so shockingly backward that they actually believed that the spirit was more important than equipment and played a decisive role in the war.

Due to its admiration for Napoleon, the French army retained a lot of war traditions from the old era, such as brightly colored red and blue uniforms, military bands, cold weaponized cavalry, and intensive charges.

Only the role of heavy machine guns and artillery was not considered, which was simply a death tactic.

The large number of wounded led to continuous recruitment by the French army, which killed a generation of young people in just a few years.

Gallieni really likes new things, and even formed a transport team composed of 600 taxis to pull people to the front line.

However, the top management of the French army was not very unified. Gallieni once competed with Joffre for the commander-in-chief of the French army. However, due to old age and illness, Gallieni lost to Joffre.

When World War I started and Gallieni was reactivated, he and Joffre still had many conflicts.

Li Yu doesn't get involved in military and political affairs anyway. They buy whatever they want and only sell them as civilian goods. And judging from the situation in World War I, a little technical advantage will not form a decisive victory.

Germany's technology is indeed strong, but France and Britain are not much weaker. Moreover, Britain can also use its naval superiority to block Germany's imports and exports. In comparison, the Allied Powers have a great chance of winning.

(End of this chapter)