Introduction: Liu Haisu

Liu haisu was born in Changzhou(the same city that I came from), Jiang su province in 1896. Liu Haisu visited Japan in 1919 and for the first time he learnt western painting techniques. He started to introduce western art styles to China and founded a institute— Tianmahui, after he returned back from Japan. In 1929, Liu Haisu visited European Countries including France, Italy, and so on. During this period, Liu had deeper and more systematic understanding on western art concepts, and he had the chance communicated with the famous artists including Picasso and Matisse. After his journey in Europe he published serval books to introduce western art to China. Liu Haisu climbed Huang Shan for 10 times and made one of his most famous series of painting about Huang Shan (famous mountain in China). Liu Haisu was one of the earliest Chinese artists who had western artistic education and introduced western art styles to China, and Liu made great distribution on Chinese modern art development.

“Huangshan” by Liu Haisu