Pan Yuliang (1895–1977)
Born 1895 CE, died 1977 CE.
Pan Yuliang (Chinese: 潘玉良; 14 June 1895 – 22 July 1977), born Chen Xiuqing, was a Chinese painter, sculptor and educator, known for being the first woman in China to paint in the Western style. She studied in Shanghai, Lyon, Paris and Rome, and taught at the École des Beaux Arts. She is one of the earliest Chinese women to receive formal instruction in Oil Painting and Life Drawing. After that, she developed a distinctive hybrid style, which made the combination between European modernist techniques and Chinese traditional pictorial sensibilities. Recent scholarship recognized Pan as one of the most important modern Chinese woman artists, who discussed the East and West culture tensions, and the gender expectations during that time. 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. In her works, she extensively used the female nude, which is unusual and controversial.
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