The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 59: Chapter 43: The Art Princess

The chubby middle-aged caregiver pushed Miss Anna along the stone path toward the depths of the manor’s open gates, with Thomas following behind.

”Miss Anna, please let us converse in English. I only took a little bit of German in high school, and the English video audience will be larger.”

”This is the photographer who will be filming throughout your evaluation of these artworks.”

Thomas waved to the photographer holding the stabilizer.

”The preview content for the new video is already prepared to be announced on Twitter. According to the studio’s process, the final product will likely be a short video of about twenty-five minutes, probably meeting the audience on Mr. Hibernian’s channel on YouTube next week.”

”Considering the viewership of past ’From one dollar to one million challenges’ videos, it’s likely that between one hundred million and one hundred eighty million people will watch this episode in the coming month. Of course, before the official launch, our staff will provide you with a copy of the finished video, and if you have any special objections to its content, we will consider them carefully.”

The caregiver turned right along the shaded stone path, arriving at an old glass building’s entrance.

The building is also of ancient architecture, but the lighting is excellent, giving it a transparent feeling, unlike many commonly seen old European buildings, which are gloomy and desolate, often giving a ghost film set feel upon entry.

”Our family doesn’t have the habit of building ballet theaters at home like the Russian aristocrats. But from early on, we had our own collection studio. My ancestors believed that art could persist longer in the world than honor.”

The caregiver opened the door and entered the collection room.

The predecessor of Austria was the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country with a structure complex to the point of chaos.

The works in this studio exemplify that style.

Greece, Turkey, Britain, and the Balkan Peninsula...

Hundreds of various oil paintings are enough to host a lavish art exhibition.

Some of these oil paintings are portraits of family members commissioned to painters, while others are artistic investments by generations, or simply artists’ repayments to generous patrons of the arts.

Her family has been passionate about art for every generation.

Anna’s great-grandmother was a wealthy immigrant from Greece who traveled to London for education and was an important patron of the Pre-Raphaelite (19th-century art movement). This lady once appeared as a model in several paintings, now housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

”WOW, really cool!”

Thomas signaled the photographer to pan across the famous paintings hanging in the collection studio, letting out a sound of amazement.

He only met Anna after renting a castle to shoot a short video of hide-and-seek with fans and discovering, by chance, that the castle’s mistress was a young student attending Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

Upon learning later,

he found out Anna was actually an art critic.

Yes, an art critic at the age of twenty-two.

In the field of art, whether painters or critics, professionals tend to be older; many professionals born in the ’70s are now in their fifties and can only be considered to be part of the middle generation.

And those who can have the word master or a certain family name after their name are often elderly, over 60.

Uncle Sakai, at his age, having achieved such fame, is considered an outstanding talent.

Whereas Anna can only be described as a monster.

God deprived her of the ability to walk but granted her exceptional talent in art appreciation.

She is the youngest contributor and senior editor of the well-known art magazine ”Oil Painting” since 1934.

Though critics don’t need the daily cultivation of their techniques like painters, experience itself requires time for honing and refining. There’s no possibility for critics to shock the world with innate talent like painting prodigies.

Indeed, Anna’s success is also inseparable from her family’s wealth as support.

Many people haven’t even set foot in an art museum in their lifetime, while Anna grew up amidst famous paintings, nurturing her innate artistic intuition.

But besides this, the girl’s resume is impressive and awe-inspiring in its own right.

At fourteen, while wandering the warehouse, Anna discovered a problem with the colors of an ancient painting by the Victorian Youth Brotherhood.

The Victorian Youth Brotherhood is a 19th-century group of painters who gathered to discuss artistic trends and collectively improve.

The club is mixed with varying levels of talent, having produced some famous painters, although most members remain unknown.

The painter of the ancient painting Anna noted belonged to the unknown category. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be stored in a warehouse, neglected.

Anna astutely observed unusual multi-color overlays at the flaked edge of the painting, while the overall somber cool-toned oil painting had a yellowing base color.

Adults, based on her discovery, invited experts to peel away layers of the canvas, revealing the painting was overlaid on another orange-toned landscape oil painting.

A linen canvas is expensive; even pure cotton canvas in the 19th century wasn’t affordable for everyone.

In the past, when young painters couldn’t afford new canvases, they often picked up unwanted old works from the club to overlay with new creations.

This was one such case.

According to the signature on the underlying canvas, T·J.

The painter of the overlaid work was an unknown novice—his original name was Tom Jane, who later got into the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and his work now has a market value of 700 thousand US Dollars.

Such stories are merely a small glimpse into her career as an art evaluator.

During her school years, Anna was the lead writer of the Vienna campus art weekly.

The campus weekly of this prestigious art university is a very serious art magazine with its own publisher, publicly issued, attracting a relatively fixed and highly loyal readership. Some subscribe for one or two decades.

The lead writers of these campus weeklies are usually young professors and accomplished older graduates from the school.

Being a lead writer of a campus weekly as a student is a great honor.

Not to mention being a contributor to the art magazine ”Oil Painting,” a Demon King Level publication, not just because her great-grandfather was the magazine’s founder.

She even has her own anonymous private podcast station—”Artists Review By Mr. Folivora (Art Criticism by Mr. Tree Sloth)”

This is a public art salon radio program.

For art critics, being young is a significant disadvantage and naturally subjects them to skepticism.

Therefore, in the podcast, Miss Anna uses a raspy voice from a fictional middle-aged uncle, Mr. Tree Sloth, to comment on the current trends in painting and various original painters.

She started from scratch, anonymously established this podcast without using any family resources, and after three years, she now has 170,000 followers.

Last year, it even topped the Apple podcast chart as the New Star in the annual art category.

Compared to Thomas, a current online celebrity with over a billion followers, it’s incomparable, but in the niche field of art criticism, this mysterious sloth of unknown origin has garnered considerable attention.

In just three years, Mr. Tree Sloth has been able to influence the market prices and creative trends of some young painters in a small way.

Undoubtedly, in the realm of art criticism, under the influence of an artistic atmosphere from a young age, Anna is truly a princess and indeed a monster.

However, Anna wasn’t Thomas’s first choice for this video episode.

Although she is very professional, yet...

The public’s impression of critics is akin to the Dongxia People’s view of traditional Chinese medicine.

Thomas actually wanted to invite an older, more experienced professor artist who works in illustration to participate in this episode.

At least in the audience’s eyes, a bearded, gray-haired old professor looks more knowledgeable than a little girl.

Unfortunately, when he extended invitations to those renowned oil painting studios, galleries, and museums, they all declined.

Someone hinted that such comparisons risk offending people.

As Anna said, the value of small-scale illustrations lies in three aspects: storytelling, historical value, and artistic value.

If the subject matter is predetermined.

When evaluating artistic value alone, it is difficult to claim that a world-renowned artist is significantly superior in skill compared to a veteran illustrator who has spent twenty years drawing ordinary comic book illustrations.

For example, one of the most famous illustrations in the world, ”Paris Peace Sign” by the great illustrator Jean-Julien, created after the 2015 terrorist attacks,

This symbol has been used repeatedly across France, at the United Nations, and in all anti-terrorism activities, becoming a national memory for Europeans.

The entire illustration is drawn in four strokes using a brush-like stroke on a circular ink ring to outline the Eiffel Tower’s shape.

A primary school student could draw a nine-tenths similar version in 30 seconds.

Yet, it is hard to say how much this unique illustration is worth.

If the original were auctioned, one million US dollars is its value, ten million US dollars is its value, if someone is willing to offer a hundred million, then it is worth a hundred million.

After all, it has become a part of the national culture.

The early printed newspapers of the Philadelphia Declaration of Independence, which were posted on bulletin boards, have a market circulation price between one and a half million to three million dollars per copy.

The critical factor is not the newspaper but its historical significance, and that’s the reason.

If this event were an ordinary TV variety show gimmick, they might secretly signal to the critics, privately telling them which painting was by a master, and which was by an unknown artist. Since it’s scripted, it wouldn’t matter.

But Thomas can’t do that.

This is the difference between traditional TV stations and emerging self-media.

Foreign YouTube creators can create buzz, spreading all sorts of gossip without considering social impact, and fans might think they’re very ”keep real (genuine)”.

He has come this far by throwing money at videos without regard for costs. As long as there’s an audience, he can recoup costs many times over no matter how much the videos cost to make.

But if it’s revealed that there’s a script or if the promised luxury yacht giveaway to fans is exposed as being won by his own aunt,

then his channel would become worthless.

He tentatively invited Anna, whom he had only met a few times, perhaps due to the confidence of an old-fashioned art collecting family, or perhaps due to the girl’s uniqueness, but she agreed to his invitation.

”Although Miss Anna already knew my intentions, I still introduced the recording rules and process of the program.”

The caregiver pushed Anna towards the interior of the estate, with Thomas following behind, explaining as they went.

”This is a representative from the Danube Artwork Factoring Company.”

He gestured toward the burly man with a bushy beard carrying a large black bag behind him.

The man with the bushy beard nodded at Anna in the wheelchair.

”He is carrying a portable insurance case used for transporting small valuable artworks.”

Thomas pointed to the heavy black case.

”Inside this case are seven small illustrations, each valued at one dollar, ten dollars, one hundred dollars, one thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, one hundred thousand dollars, and one million dollars.”

He took out his phone and showed a screenshot of a cashed one million dollar check to the camera.

”No hype, no money laundering, this is genuinely what I spent one million dollars on.”

He emphasized each word slowly and deliberately.

”ONE! MILLION! DOLLARS!”

”Some say the art market is just hype, that with the right promotion even air can be sold at a high price.”

”Others say the influence inherent in a master’s work is enough to astound an era.”

”Today we’re going to reveal this answer.”

”Miss Anna, your task is to tell me, as an art critic, which painting is better without knowing the identity of the painter.”