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

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 Par ...

, and the Fung Ping Shan Museum.

Background

Born in

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

, 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 The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and then at the

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

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, where she graduated in 1920. Upon her return to China, she became closely associated with the Lingnan School of traditional Chinese painters based in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. 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. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 1949, Fan fled to Paris and eventually moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

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 École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

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

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painting, 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 Ma ...

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, 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 (1879–1951) and his brother Gao Qifeng (1889–1933), 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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fan, Tchunpi 1898 births 1986 deaths Chinese expatriates in France Chinese-American culture Painters from Fujian Chinese women painters Chinese emigrants to the United States École des Beaux-Arts alumni Académie Julian alumni Artists from Fuzhou American artists of Chinese descent 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century Chinese women artists 20th-century Chinese artists

Background

Career

Work

References

Further reading

External links