Fan Tchunpi or Fang Junbi (; 1898–1986), was a Chinese artist known for her brush-and-ink paintings in the traditional '' guóhuà'' style. Trained in Western painting techniques while living in France, her work is known for its combination of European and Chinese formal elements. Called "one of the most important and prolific Chinese artists of the modern era," her work has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

, the

Musée Cernuschi The Musée Cernuschi (; 'Cernuschi Museum'), officially also the ('Asian Arts Museum of the City of Paris'), is an Asian art museum located at 7 avenue Vélasquez, near Parc Monceau, in Paris, France. Its Asian art collection is second in Pari ...

, and the Fung Ping Shan Museum.

Background

Born in Fuzhou, Fan was the eleventh child of a wealthy merchant family. In 1912, she moved to France with her older sister Junying and sister-in-law Zeng Xing. From 1917 Fan studied art at the Académie Julian in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and then at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, where she graduated in 1920. Upon her return to China, she became closely associated with the

Lingnan School The Lingnan School () of painting, also called the Cantonese School, is a style of painting from the Guangdong or Lingnan region of China. This school reflects a style of painting founded in the 19th century in Guangdong province by ''Two Gaos an ...

of traditional Chinese painters based in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. Forced into exile with the establishment 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 most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1949, Fan fled to Paris and eventually moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in 1957, returning to China only once in 1972. She finally moved to Geneva in 1983, where she lived until her death.

Career

While studying in France, Fan became the first Chinese female student to enter the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scienc ...

exhibition. She was also the first Chinese female artist to be included in the annual Salon Société des Artistes Françaises. Fan published books in China on her oil painting, including a 1938 volume with a foreword by

Cai Yuanpei Cai Yuanpei (; 1868–1940) was a Chinese philosopher and politician who was an influential figure in the history of Chinese modern education. He made contributions to education reform with his own education ideology. He was the president of Pek ...

, former Chinese Minister of Education and a classical scholar. She met

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...

in 1943 and worked in close contact with him until leaving China, producing a series of solo exhibitions from 1944 to 1949.

Work

Fan's early works reflect the Impressionist style of French artists like

Paul-Albert Besnard Paul-Albert Besnard (2 June 1849 – 4 December 1934) was a French painter and printmaker. Biography Besnard was born in Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, studied with Jean Bremond and was influenced by Alexandre Cabanel. He won ...

, with whom she studied in 1926. After returning to China, Fan became one of several 20th-century Chinese artists who sought to revitalize the tradition of Chinese brush-and-ink painting as a self-conscious expression of national identity. Her work from this period is particularly influenced by the founders of the Lingnan School,

Gao Jianfu Gao Jianfu (1879–1951; 高剑父, pronounced "Gou Gim Fu" in Cantonese) was a Cantonese artist during World War II. He is known for leading the Lingnan School's effort to modernize Chinese traditional painting as a "new national art."Minglu, Ga ...

(1879–1951) and his brother

Gao Qifeng Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

(1889–1935), who combined Western pictorial devices such as single-point perspective and atmospheric light with highly naturalistic and patriotic scenes of modern-day life in China.

Background

Career

Work

References

Further reading