Oil on canvas

91 x 64.2 cm. 35 7/8 x 25 1/4 in.

Signed in Chinese on reverse
LITERATURE
2013, ANHUI WENBO, Anhui Museum, Hefei, p.8

EXHIBITED
28 Mar – 12 Apr 1992, An Solo Exhibition of Pan Yuliang, J.P. Art Center, Kaohsiung
5 - 27 May 1993, An Collection Exhibition of Pan Yuliang, J.P. Art Center, Kaohsiung

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

As a Chinese woman, my entire life has been a fight for love and for ideas, for living with confidence as a woman.
—Pan Yuliang
Sublime Subversion
Pan Yuliang's Immense Contributions to the Western Genre of Nude Oil Painting
Pan Yuliang bore witness to the rise of women's liberation in the West at the beginning of the 20th century, and consequently, her artistic style is based in the pursuit of an independent female conscience. She was praised by Liu Haisu as “part of China's first generation of great female artists” and Xi Beihong once referred to her as a “heroine”. She is the first Chinese female artist to have spent half of her lifetime building her career in the European art scene.
An independent pursuit of free expression
In 1921, Pan began a course in painting at the Institut Franco-Chinois in Lilles. Two years later, she was accepted into the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris along with Xu Beihong, another bourgeoning Chinese artist of the time. Following graduation, she continued her studies at the Accademia di belle arti di Roma. At the same time, she was featured at the Roman International Art Exhibition and won a Gold Prize. Studying at three famous institutions gave Pan Yuliang a solid technical and theoretical grounding in painting. Her willingness to overcome linguistic and cultural boundaries allowed her to develop profound insight into the history of Western art. Despite her arduous origins, she never abandoned her artistic ideals. She did not end up changing her citizenship； neither did she launch collaborations with galleries. Instead, she sought to realize her ambitions by herself in a context of post-war instability. Out of the few Chinese female artists to have forged their career in France, Pan Yuliang is one of the most outstanding.
In her works, Pan Yuliang never sought to erase the influence of her cultural background and was known in the Parisian art world as “one of the leading Chinese masters of Western painting”. She became the first Chinese artist to receive the honor of having works collected by the Musée du Louvre. Furthermore, her works have also been collected by a number of important fine arts institutions in the West, such as the Musée national d'Art moderne, the Musée Cernuschi and the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Foreshadowing of an Illustrious Career
The female nude was a common subject in Pan Yuliang's work throughout her entire career. During her studies at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, the then-president of the school, Liu Haisu, created significant controversy and caused waves throughout the Chinese art world due to the fact that he had been holding life drawing classes with nude models. Thanks to the conjoined efforts of Liu and other supporters of the modern arts （such as Ni Yide）, life drawing classes were resumed in 1926. This not only encouraged progress in the modernization of Chinese fine arts — it also molded Pan Yuliang's lifelong artistic principles of freedom of expression and open-mindedness.
Pan Yuliang devoted much of her studies in Shanghai to works depicting the human form. She was so intent on learning to paint nudes that, in the conservative context of early post-imperial China, she often had to use her own body as a model. However, after moving to Paris, she finally found a platform where she could give free rein to her artistic expression. In Paris during the 1940s, she assiduously researched and created nudes. Her works Nude Beauty （1940）, Black Cat and Nude （1941） and Comfort （1941） were shown at a number of famous exhibitions, such as the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon printanier de Paris, where they were greatly praised by the public. This began Pan's rise to eminence during her second stay in Paris as well as paved the way for other illustrious achievements in her career.
The work presented at this auction, Nude Beauty, was produced around this time and is emblematic of the artist's explorations of the Western Nude series. As many of Pan Yuliang's oil paintings have been collected by a number of official fine arts institutions, it is extremely rare to find them on the market. Pan's series of Western nudes is particularly rare. The importance of this series of paintings is perhaps best reflected by the fact that virtually of them have been collected by the Anhui Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of History in Taipei. Nude Beauty was purchased by Pan Yuliang's greatest personal collector in the early 1990s. It was shown two years in a row （1992–93） during A Solo Exhibition of Pan Yuliang, which was held at the J.P. Art Center in Kaohsiung. This fall is the first time that the work has been sold on the market. Throughout the vicissitudes of the more than half a century since its creation, the work has been preserved in excellent condition.
The Simultaneously Forceful and Tender Beauty of the Female Form
Although Pan mostly chose to depict Asian women in her work at this time in her career, Nude Beauty is a rare exception. The subject's distinctly Western features, reflect Pan Yuliang's groundbreaking international perspective and consummate grasp of body language. The seated posture of the subject is depicted using dark lines； the curved lines from the shoulder to the arm and the waist to the thigh are evocative of the model's sturdy form. Her head is facing a different direction from her legs, which contributes to the compositional balance of the painting. The brushwork is reminiscent of the rigorous style of early European academic art. Pan depicted the model's form in bold, sketch-like lines and used thick lines on the main structural elements as a means of emphasizing the bulk and depth of the body.
Much like Renoir's classical nudes, the subject in Nude Beauty has supple and lustrous skin as well as a curvaceous form. This work demonstrates Pan's experimentation at this time in her career with mixing forceful and gentle hues. The use of color in Nude Beauty differs greatly from the vivid color schemes featured in her later works, which were more influenced by impressionism and fauvism. The tender green hue of the monotone background not only increases the brightness of the work； it also creates a tranquil ambiance. Blond Girl, collected by the Anhui Museum, also features a pale-green background. This suggests that Pan Yuliang liked to use backgrounds with clear, fresh hues as a means of complementing the youthful qualities of her Western subjects, such as fair complexion, rosy cheeks, and sparkling eyes.
A Free-Spirited Approach to Aesthetics
Nude Beauty features a distinctly modernist composition as well as resolute and minimalist brushstrokes. In this sense, it bears similarities to the work of Modigliani and Matisse. Pan Yuliang has deliberately cropped the lower legs of the subject of out the painting, instead choosing to emphasize the curves of her waist and the outlines of her face. Pan's brushwork is at times forceful and, at others, gentle, creating a juxtaposition between the “fullness” and “emptiness” reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy. Furthermore, the composition of the work reflects the notion of liubai （or “leaving white”） from traditional Chinese art, which Pan integrated into her work toward the end of her career. Pan did not merely seek to express Eastern qualities using modern, Western techniques； rather, her independent and broad-minded nature encouraged her to create a harmonious fusion of Western and Eastern aesthetics. In contrast to the tastes of the European bourgeoisie at that time, Pan Yuliang's nude portraits did not feature flamboyant brushwork or contrived poses. On the contrary, her works move people thanks to their humanism； they reflect the non-conformist spirit of independent art as well as her lifelong pursuit of freedom and equality for women.
Pan Yuliang's creative evolution can be summarized as follows: while her grounding in painting was forged thanks to European academism, she was later influenced by impressionism's free color schemes and its emphasis on capturing fleeting instants. Ultimately, toward the end of her career, Pan would anchor her free-roaming spirit in the aesthetic traditions of the East. Through her unique representation of the female form, she seemingly attempts to convey the defining features of her personality: independence, resilience, and tenderness. As such, it is quite fair to say that Pan Yuliang was a heroine in the modernization of the Chinese fine arts during the 20th century.

Price estimate:
HKD: 6,000,000 - 8,000,000
USD: 764,300 - 1,019,100

Auction Result:
HKD : 7,050,000