Walking in the Rain — Series No. 5

Title:​ Walking in the Rain — Series No. 5 — Marco Polo Award (Commemorating the 700th Anniversary of Marco Polo's Death) $2,000

Artist:​ Yao Hongyu (China)

Dimensions:​ 61 × 34 cm

Year:​ 2023

Medium:​ Transparent Watercolor

About the Artist

Yao Hongyu is a Chinese watercolor artist celebrated for his lyrical and atmospheric approach to figurative painting. His Walking in the Rain series stands as one of his most recognized bodies of work — capturing solitary figures moving through rain-soaked streets with a quiet poetry that is at once intimate and universal. Through the fluid, translucent properties of transparent watercolor, Yao renders the shimmer of wet pavement, the soft diffusion of light through rain, and the gentle anonymity of the urban passerby with remarkable sensitivity. The series speaks to a deeply human experience of solitude and movement, rendered in a visual language that feels both distinctly Chinese in its restraint and wholly accessible to a global audience.