Pan Yuliang (Chinese: 潘玉良, 14 June 1895 – 22 July 1977), born as Chen Xiuqing, also known as Zhang Yuliang (張玉良),[1] is remembered as the first woman in China to paint in the Western style. She studied in Shanghai and Paris, and taught at the École des Beaux Arts. In 1985, much of her work was transported to China, and collected by the National Art Museum in Beijing and the Anhui Museum in Hefei. Despite being remembered for introducing Western paintings to China, she also provided a new lens to how women were seen through her paintings, not just as objects but as subjects. She won several awards for her work and exhibited internationally in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Significant paintings, sculptures, and prints by her are still conserved in France in the collection of the Cernuschi museum. Her life as an artist has been portrayed in novels, films, and operas in China and the United States. Her art evolved within the flux of conflicting dichotomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, male chauvinism and emerging feminism.[1] Pan is also remembered as an artist who engaged with labels, such as "contemporary/modern," "Chinese," and "woman" artist, while also questioning them.[2]
Life
Early life and education
Pan-Zhang Yuliang was born as Chen Xiuqing in 1895 in Jiangsu Province. After the death of her parents when she was 14, she was sold by her uncle to a brothel，she refused to engage in prostitution and later became a performing singing girl. She attracted the attention of Pan Zanhua,[3] a wealthy customs official, who took her as his second wife. He bought her freedom and provided for her education, and she adopted his surname Pan.[3] A legal document outlining her will to family members was signed "Pan-Zhang Yuliang" (Chinese: 潘張玉良). Pan-Zhang Yuliang is the name that she acknowledged and preferred.[4]
Pan moved to Shanghai with her husband, where she passed the exams to enter the Shanghai Art School in 1920,[5] where she studied painting with Wang Jiyuan. Within the Shanghai Art School, Pan struggled to fit in with her peers. Due to her "lowly" background, she was often ostracized and did not fit into the model of the "modern Shanghai lady" — a young woman whose arts education added to their femininity and beauty. Pan was frequently described by her peers as "warm-hearted and forthright", albeit "blunt" at times. Pan Yuliang was one of the first women to graduate from the Shanghai Art School.[6] After graduation, she went to Lyon and Paris for further study, sponsored by her husband Pan Zanhua. She attended the Sino-French Institute of Lyon and Ecole National des Beaux Arts in Lyon, before finishing her studies at the Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris.[7] In 1925, she won the prestigious Rome Scholarship to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in Italy.[3][1] In Rome, she studied under Umberto Coromaldi.[8]
Career and later life
In 1926, Pan Yuliang won the Gold Prize for her works at the Roman International Art Exhibition. In 1929, she was invited by Liu Haisu to teach at the Shanghai Art School, leading to her return to China. She was honored as the first Chinese female artist to paint in the Western style, and received five solo exhibitions in China from 1929 to 1936. She was also invited to be an art professor of the National Central University in Nanjing.
Untitled,1930. Ink and gouache on paper.
Pan Yuliang's work was harshly criticized by government officials and conservative critics - largely due to her depictions of female nudes.[3] Despite the controversy, Pan gained favor in the art world of the Republic of China (1912–49), alongside fellow female painter Guan Zilan, for their embodiment of modernity.[9] In China, women artists were generally constricted to depictions of nature and, occasionally, portraiture, but nudes were considered improper.[6] Despite this, Pan continued to depict female nudes, often using herself as a model.[7] Apart from her nude works, Pan was known for seamlessly incorporating Chinese ink painting techniques into Western styles, and drew praise for the ability of her ink paintings to subtly undermine the authority of the European art traditions.[2]
In 1937, Pan left Shanghai for France and settled in Paris. She joined the faculty of the École des Beaux Arts, and was elected as chairman of the Chinese Art Association.[10] Her works were exhibited internationally, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and Greece. It was following her move to France that her work drew widespread acclaim, though she kept her Chinese nationality despite living in France for almost fifty years. Despite the recognition, Pan experienced poverty and difficulty selling her art. She refused to be bound by contractual obligations with art dealers in Europe.[7] Towards the end of her life, Pan became marginalized from both the Chinese and French art communities; in China, her contributions to Chinese modern art were overlooked due to her long absence from the country, while in Paris, she was categorized as a Chinese and foreign painter, thus excluding her from mainstream art appreciation.[7]
1926, her works won the Gold Prize at the Roman International Art Exhibition.[12]
1959, she won the Paris Gold Prize and the Belgium Silver Prize.[12]
The Anhui Museum holds a collection of Pan Yuliang's works of art, including 4000 pieces, 3892 sketches, 393 ink paintings, 361 oil paintings, 13 block prints, 6 engravings, and 4 sculptures. Only ten of her oil paintings are on the market, leading to high valuations.[12] Since 2000, the record price for this artist at auction was $4,451,802 USD for Nude by Window, sold at Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited in 2014.[13]
In popular culture
Her story is loosely told in the novel Hua Hun (A Soul Haunted by Painting) (1984) by Shih Nan. Later, It was adapted as a Chinese film directed by Huang Shuqin, A Soul Haunted by Painting which was released in 1994, starring the actress Gong Li as the artist. Her life story was also re-enacted in the 2004 TVB drama Painting Soul where her role was played by Michelle Reis. The Huangmei operaThe Female Painter from the Brothel (風塵女畫家), starring Ma Lan, is also based on her life.
Jennifer Cody Epstein's internationally bestselling novel The Painter from Shanghai (2008) is also based on Pan Yuliang's life, and has been translated into sixteen languages. Epstein, who worked as a journalist in Hong Kong and China, spent ten years writing and researching the book. Marie Laure de Shazer, who specialized in Chinese language, also wrote a book about Pan Yuliang, Pan Yu Liang, La Manet de Shanghai, based on her life in China and France.
References
^ abcPHYLLIS, TEO (2010). "MODERNISM AND ORIENTALISM: THE AMBIGUOUS NUDES OF CHINESE ARTIST PAN YULIANG". New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 12, 2: 65–80.
^ abPark, Elissa H. Negotiating the Discourse of the Modern in Art: Pan Yuliang (1895–1977) and the Transnational Modern. Diss. University of Michigan, 2013. Web. Accessed on 16 March 2017.
^Zheng, Jane (2007). "The Shanghai Fine Arts College: Art Education and Modern Women Artists in the 1920s and 1930s". Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 19 (1): 206.
