Situ Qiao (; 1902 – 16 February 1958) was a Chinese oil painter and graphic artist. An important member of the Lingnan School of art, he was also known for his friendship with the influential writer

Lu Xun Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. ...

. His most famous work is the 1940 painting ''Put Down Your Whip''.

Biography

Situ Qiao was born to a poor family in Chikan, Kaiping,

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

province in 1902. His name at birth was Situ Qiaoxing (). His father was an amateur painter. In 1924 Situ entered the School of

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its statu ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, but was more interested in painting. In 1926 he held his first personal exhibition, which was noticed by

, who purchased his drawing '' Five Policemen and an O''. When the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

war erupted in 1927, he moved to

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

to work for the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

advisor

Mikhail Borodin Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg, known by the alias Borodin, zh, 鮑羅廷 (9 July 1884 – 29 May 1951), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Communist International (Comintern) agent. He was an advisor to Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) in ...

. By 1928 he had moved to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

and set up a studio. He held an exhibition in March 1928, which was again noticed by Lu Xun, who wrote about his conversation with Situ Qiao. In winter 1928 Situ left for France to study painting, and exhibited at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial ar ...

the following year. In 1930 Situ Qiao left

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to study in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He supported his studies by selling his own paintings. However, his activity was considered working, which was illegal for a holder of a student visa, and he was arrested. While being held in a prison for immigrants, he painted a painting entitled ''Painting the Statue of Liberty from the Most Unfree Place''. After being deported back to China, in 1931 he taught at

Lingnan University Lingnan University (LN/LU), formerly called Lingnan College, is a public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. It aims to provide students with an education in the liberal arts tradition and has joined the Global Liberal Arts Alliance sinc ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

. In 1934 he went to

, working as an art editor for '' Ta Kung Pao'', and moved to Shanghai in 1936. Situ Qiao was present when Lu Xun died on 19 October 1936 in Shanghai, and drew the famous final sketches of the writer. He soon moved to Nanking, then capital of China. When the invading Japanese army attacked Nanking in 1937, all his personal collection of paintings were destroyed. Put Down Your Whip by Situ Qiao

Fleeing from the Sino-Japanese War, Situ Qiao left China for

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, and later to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 1940 he saw actor Jin Shan and actress Wang Ying's performance of Chen Liting's patriotic play '' Put Down Your Whip''. He invited Jin Shan and Wang Ying to his studio, and painted his eponymous oil painting, which has become his most famous work. When Singapore also fell to the Japanese in 1941, Situ Qiao escaped to the wartime Chinese capital Chungking. After WWII, Situ Qiao went to New York City with his wife Feng Yimei in September 1946 to seek treatment for his lung disease. They returned to Beijing in 1950 after the founding of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. He taught at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and helped to set up the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. On 16 February 1958 Situ Qiao died in his studio in Beijing. He donated all his paintings to the state, which are now in the collections of various museums in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and his hometown Kaiping. A compilation of his paintings was published by Beijing People's Art Publishing House.

Biography

References

Further reading