Chen Ying-De moved to Paris in 1969. His realistic painting style reflects the elegance and poetic quality of French classicism. He is skilled in the use of dramatic lighting and pure chiaroscuro. Chen once said, "I prefer uninhabited nature, for it foregrounds the primeval beauty of the landscape and the sense of eternity. Nevertheless, I do not purposely exclude human beings from my painting, but simply imagine that they stand outside the frame and admire the landscape in front of them. In this way, the viewers and the natural landscape will merge into one, thereby bringing the aesthetic delight described by Zong Bing (a painter flourishing in the Southern Song dynasty, 375-444) as ‘admiring landscapes with a pure mind’ and ‘discovering truths through a transcendental spirit’. "

In [Robust and Vigorous Pines], the firm and persistent pines occupy the entire composition. The evergreen pines stand tall in the mountains with bits of greenish-blue circling the trunks. The air and swirling mist seem to flow amidst these pine trees. This painting’s composition entices the viewers into the artist’s conception, in which the perfect fusion of personal spirit and natural ethereality finds expression.