Pan Yuliang

Pan Yuliang, born as Chen Xiuqing, also known as Zhang Yuliang (張玉良), is remembered as 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.