Painted as a direct, front-facing self-portrait, a young Chinese woman with straight, dark hair cut short looks slightly past us, her expression calm and unsmiling. Her skin appears light to medium in tone, modeled with soft planes rather than sharp outlines. She wears a pale yellow, collared blouse or coat that catches cool light at the shoulder and neckline. Behind her, a muted gray-beige background stays nearly empty, so her face and garment hold the composition. Brushwork is restrained and matte, with subtle shifts of pink, olive, and lavender shaping the cheeks and lips. The cropped framing of her head and upper torso feels intimate, like a private study held close. Chinese artist Liu Ziming lost her hearing as a child and later simply used the name Ziming (meaning “self-sounding”), turning identity into a kind of quiet manifesto. Born in Kunming, Liu Ziming’s name (刘自鸣 / 劉自鳴) is and the meaning of Ziming is a poignant echo of her early childhood hearing loss and her commitment to painting as a voice. After training in Beijing and studying in Paris (Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the École des Beaux-Arts), she returned to China in the mid-1950s. This 1961 self-portrait can be interpreted as a blending of Paris technique, Chinese modern life, and a woman artist insisting on her own gaze. CAFA is the Central Academy of Fine Arts (中央美术学院), and this work’s presence at the CAFA Art Museum (中央美术学院美术馆) places her within the academy’s larger story of modern Chinese art. CAFA curators note that this self-portrait hung in her living room through out her life, suggesting it was not only a public depiction of herself, but a daily companion … and likely proof that, as a saying in her biographies puts it, “when one door closes, another opens” … here, through paint.

自画像 (Self-Portrait) by 刘自鸣 / Liu Ziming (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1961 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #LiuZiming #刘自鸣 #Liu #CAFAArtMuseum #中央美术学院美术馆 #art #artText #BlueskyArt #AsianArtist #ChineseArtist #ChineseArt #SelfPortrait #DeafArtist

The sitter, Christina Li Hui Wang (李惠望 often recorded in English as Christina Lee / Christina Li Hui Wang and in Chinese name order as Li Hui Wang), was a young Singaporean Chinese woman who would later marry film magnate Loke Wan Tho (陆运涛). Painted in 1940 at Jiang Xia Tang in Singapore, the portrait comes from Xu Beihong’s Southeast Asian years, when he combined fundraising exhibitions for a war-torn China with commissioned portraits of the Nanyang Chinese elite. The young East Asian woman sits turned sideways on a wooden chair, her body angled towards us while her gaze drifts slightly upward and left, as if listening to someone just out of frame. Her skin has a warm, light-golden tone as soft light from the left catches her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose, leaving gentle shadows under her chin and around her dark, thoughtful eyes. Her short, wavy black hair frames her face and brushes the collar of a close-fitting, short-sleeved dress patterned with bright red, yellow, blue, and green flowers. One bare forearm rests loosely along the chair back, fingers relaxed, suggesting ease. Behind her, a flat beige wall and a vertical band of darker tan are broken only by a slim hanging scroll with Chinese characters and a red seal, anchoring her in a Chinese cultural space. Xu’s European academic training shows in the careful modeling of Christina’s face, the convincing weight of her arm, and the natural fall of her floral dress, yet he strips away props of status to focus on her personality. She is a modern Chinese woman rooted in Chinese culture, yet dressed in cosmopolitan fashion, and living amid the uncertainties of war and empire. At this moment, Xu was emerging as a leading voice of modern Chinese art, arguing that realism could humanize national struggle. In Christina’s far-off gaze and poised, slightly tense arm, he captures a private experience of that larger history, turning a society beauty into the quiet protagonist of a modern Chinese story.

一位年轻女士的肖像 (Portrait of a Young Woman, Christina Li Hui Wang) by 徐悲鸿 / Xu Beihong (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1940 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #XuBeihong #徐悲鸿 #Beihong #BlueskyArt #CAFAArtMuseum #portraitofawoman #ChineseArtist #中央美术学院美术馆 #ChineseArt #1940s

Jiang Biwei (蔣碧薇) leisurely relaxes on a golden-yellow bed reading a book. In the early 1920s Chinese artist Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻) produced numerous paintings and sketches in France of his muse Jiang. The couple were madly in love at the time and too poor to hire models. Jiang was born as Jiang Tangzhen (蔣棠珍) in April 1899 in Yixing, Jiangsu province. In 1911, her parents betrothed her to Zha Zihan, from an influential family of Haining, Zhejiang. In 1916, her family moved to Shanghai for her father to be a professor at Fudan University. One of his students was the ambitious young artist Xu Beihong who became very close with his daughter. Xu was set to go to Japan to study art and Jiang was upset to be forced to marry Zha, so the couple left a note and eloped to Japan giving her the alias "Jiang Biwei" ... which later became better known than her real name. The embarrassment for her family was so great that they declared she had died from an illness. Their anger subsided after Jiang wrote an apology. After 6 months, Jiang and Xu moved back to Shanghai. In 1918, Xu was offered a scholarship to study in France and the young couple moved to Paris. In the mid-1920s, they returned to China and Jiang gave birth to a son and a daughter. But, by 1930, Xu had fallen in love with one of his students: Sun Duoci (孙多慈) ... or so the story goes, but it might of been exaggerated rumors spread by Kuomintang (KMT) leader Chang Tao-fan (张道藩), aka Zhang Daofan, who had known Jiang since Paris and was sending her love letters ... even though Chang had a French wife and child. Jiang and Xu finally and very publicly divorced in the 1940s. When the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan, Jiang went with Chang and they lived together for 10 years including many when he was president of Taiwan ... before his wife returned in 1958. Jiang published her memoir "Reminiscences of Jiang Biwei" in 1964: composed of two volumes, "Beihong and I" and "Daofan and I."

读书的蒋碧薇 (Jiang Biwei Reading) by 徐悲鴻 / Xu Beihong (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1920s - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #WomenInArt #art #ChineseArtist #reading #artText #ChineseArt #CAFA #PortraitofaWoman #张道藩 #BlueskyArt #蔣碧薇 #JiangBiwei #徐悲鴻 #XuBeihong #CAFAartMuseum #中央美术学院 #artwork #OilPainting

The 80s were a turning point for Chinese artist Zhu Naizheng (朱乃正), as his choice of subject matter gradually changed from being figure-centered to landscape-centered. As for the style he used in his oil paintings, he began to explore new forms of expression by incorporating brushwork from Chinese calligraphy and striving to create a dialogue between Eastern and Western art. In 1980, when Zhu was transferred from Qinghai, where he had worked for over 20 years, back to the CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts aka 中央美术学院), he created this painting of a modern Chinese woman seated on a couch, engrossed in reading a paperback booklet. Together, the soft lighting, the simple tones, and the eye-level perspective can be seen as signs of the artistic reform that Zhu would soon undertake. The painting conveys a sense of quiet contemplation and introspection. The subject's absorbed attention to the book she holds, combined with the subdued colors and textures, creates a serene and almost melancholic atmosphere. The realistic style draws the viewer's attention to the details of the woman's expression and the textures of her clothing and the surrounding environment. With her dark hair styled simply, the woman’s expression is one of concentration. She wears a loose-fitting, striped shirt in muted blue and off-white tones, paired with blue trousers. Her posture is relaxed but attentive as her left arm stretches out on the armrest. Painted at a time of political, economic, and cultural reform in China, Zhu was also in a time of transition. The native of Hailan in Zhejiang Province had been sent to work in Qinghai Province after graduation. In 1972, he was selected with other young artists to “technically” correct artworks by amateurs for the official Cultural Revolution Art Exhibition in Beijing. These works presumably included the paintings done by the Huxian peasant painters. Zhu was tranferred back to Beijing in 1980 and reassigned to the Central Art Academy.

妇女像 (Portrait of a Woman) by 朱乃正 / Zhu Naizheng (Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1980 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #WomenInArt #ArtText #Art #ZhuNaizheng #womensart #CAFAArtMuseum #CAFA #ChineseArt #ChineseArtist #realism #portraitofawoman #朱乃正 #妇女像 #中央美术学院 #中央美术学院美术馆 #artoftheday #reading #chinese

"Young Singer" is a fine example of Jin Shangyi’s (靳尚谊) work and an old-school Neoclassical oil painting. The subject is famous Chinese singer, Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛). Jin painted a classic half-length portrait of the young Peng, not only producing an excellent likeness of her, but also her state of mind and calm, dignified nature. Peng sits in a modern blue office chair with her dark hair styled in a classic ponytail. She looks directly at us with a clam expression like she is about to smile. She's wearing a simple, dark-colored sleeveless dress. Her posture is upright and composed, with her hands clasped in her lap. Her warm skin tone is rendered with subtle variations in shading, suggesting depth and realism. Peng is a Chinese contemporary folk singer and the wife (since 1987) of Xi Jinping (习近平), current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China. Peng gained popularity as a singer from regular TV like the annual CCTV New Year's Gala and has won honors in many singing competitions nationwide. In 1986, she received the Plum Blossom Award, China's highest theatrical award, for her lead role in "The White Haired Girl." In 2014, Peng was listed as the 57th Most Powerful Woman in the World by Forbes. Jin was a key initiator of Neoclassical style painting in China, which emerged after the Rural Realism movement and can be described as a kind of "new realism" based on academic art. Drawing on the Academic Classicism movement of France, Neoclassical works depict simple, reserved figures using soft delicate brushwork. The elegant tranquil tones of such paintings distinguish them from the bold strokes used in Soviet oil painting that was common in China during this era. Emulating the composition of the famous Mona Lisa, Jin replaced Leonardo da Vinci's landscape background with a landscape painting by Fan Kuan (范寬 aka Fan Zhongzheng), a Chinese landscape painter of the Song dynasty, as a nod towards traditional Chinese culture.

青年女歌手 (Young Singer) by 靳尚谊 (Shangyi Jin / Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1984 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #womeninart #art #portraitofawoman #oilpainting #ChineseArt #靳尚谊 #ShangyiJin #CAFAArtMuseum #中央美术学院美术馆 #ChineseArtist #fineart #beauty #womensart #CAFA #ArtText #portrait #PengLiyuan #彭丽媛

This 1936 oil painting by Chinese artist Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻) of Sun Duoci (孙多慈) was produced when the pair were in love despite the artist being married and she being his student ... and a talented artist herself. This is one of the largest portraits ever created by Xu. His studio provides the backdrop, and the objects were placed there intentionally. On the cabinet, there is a Greek statue that Xu brought back from Europe, a plaster sculpture of Athena, and face molds of Tolstoy and Lenin. At the back on the left, there is a Chinese porcelain jar filled with scrolls on the ground. Sun is the focal point, occupying the central space. Her dark hair is styled in a short "modern" bob and she is dressed in a pale blue sleeveless cheongsam-style dress with a darker collar plus white stockings and dapper white high-heel shoes, suggesting a modest yet chic style. Her posture is relaxed but upright as she turns to stare directly at us with a piercing focused gaze. Sun sits in a prominent dark brown rocking chair with swirling, ornate details on its arms and legs which contrasts with the lighter tones of her dress. Sun Duoci was a famous Chinese artist for her oil paintings, sketches and ink and wash works. She was also an accomplished calligrapher and writer. Xu regarded her as a "painter of genius." Xu, also known as Ju Péon, is primarily recognized for his Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds. He was one of the first Chinese artists to articulate the need for artistic expressions that reflected a modern China at the beginning of the 20th century. He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes – a show of his high proficiency in Western art techniques. Xu was one of the four pioneers (along with Yan Wenliang, Lin Fengmian, and Liu Haisu) of Chinese modern art who have been hailed as "The Four Great Art Academy Presidents" (四大校長).

孙多慈像 (Portrait of Sun Duoci) by 徐悲鸿 (Xu Beihong / Chinese) - Oil on canvas / 1936 - CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China) #womeninart #art #oilpainting #portraitofawoman #womensart #徐悲鸿 #XuBeihong #CAFAArtMuseum #中央美术学院美术馆 #ChineseArt #ChineseArtist #孙多慈 #SunDuoci #fineart #ArtText #Chinese #四大校長 #CAFA