Zhou Xun may be an internationally acclaimed actress now, but before she was catapulted to stardom, Mrs Archie Kao had an interesting job as a model. Not just any type of model, mind you, but a live painting model for a famous Chinese artist. All when she was just 18 years old, too. And 27 years later, sleuthing netizens have dug up these pictures of the oil paintings of the 45-year-old star.

Her modelling career started when she was a student at Zhejiang Arts Institute, where she often posed for calendar and magazine covers. And in some twist of fate, she wound up as an art model for Chinese artist Pan Honghai, and even appeared topless in some pieces.

And if you thought that a picture paints a thousand words, you haven’t heard about what Pan Honghai predicted about the then-18-year-old Zhou Xun, just by painting her. He predicted that she’d make it big one day, after he observed her calm demeanour during the shoot. In particular, she was tasked to pour tea from a teapot when some of it spilled on her pants, and she gracefully flicked the water off. Now you know what to do to see if you’re meant for stardom.

It was reported that this artwork (above) that Zhou Xun had modelled for, ‘Girl in the Sun’, was auctioned off for a whopping 1.8mil yuan (S$346,000) while ‘Ancient Wind’ was sold for 800,000 yuan (S$154,000). Among the collection is a half-naked Zhou Xun carrying a clay pot, and its value is expected to rise due to the star’s popularity.

Scroll down for the rest of the art pieces.