01 Painting, The Art Of The Nude, with footnotes # 151

SANYU (CHANG YU, 1895-1966)

Five Nudes, c. 1950

Oil on masonite

120 x 172 cm. (47 1/4 x 67 3/4 in.)

Private collection

The first time Sanyu encountered the exotic and strange world of nude sketching was in the 1920s at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. For the average Chinese person at that time, it must have been hard to accept that depictions of naked woman should be anything but a form of glorified pornography, even though in the West there was a long tradition of nude art. Back in China, in the years before Sanyu left for Europe, prominent painter and art educator Liu Haisu had introduced the practice of sketching from nude models to Shanghai, a move that sent major ripples through Chinese society and triggered a heated ten-year dispute over naked models and nudity in art. Sanyu, who was personally acquainted with Liu, must have been aware of those goings-on, and he would remain fascinated with the glamorous subject of nude painting right up to the 1950s. More on this painting

Sanyu was a Chinese-French artist that created prints, drawings, and paintings. His work fused the histories of European still-life and figurative painting with the traditions of Chinese calligraphy. Considered a master of form and color, he was sometimes referred to as “the Chinese Matisse.” Born Chang Yu on October 14, 1901 in Nanchong, China, he was tutored in calligraphy and painting from a young age. In 1921, he travelled to Paris to study at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. While in Paris, he discovered the work of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. In 1948, Sanyu travelled to New York where he became a close friend of the photographer Robert Frank. It was Frank who later established the Sanyu Scholarship Fund at Yale University in his honor. Today, a large quantity of his work can be found in the collection of the National Museum of History in Taiwan. The artist died in his studio on August 12, 1966 in Paris, France. More on Sanyu

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