By Cheng Shifa (1921-2007) Best known for his figure paintings of China’s national minorities, Cheng Shifa also painted landscapes and flowers. He was born in Songjiang near Shanghai in Jiangsu province. His family had practised herbal medicine for three generations. In 1939 Cheng entered the Department of Traditional Painting at the Shanghai School of Fine Arts (Shanghai meishu zhuanke xuexiao) and graduated from there in 1941. In 1950 the East China People’s Art Publishing House in Shanghai employed him to produce book serial illustrations (lianhuan hua). His illustrations of the English version of the novel The Scholars (Rulin waishi) won him a silver medal at the Leipzig International Book Fair in 1959. Three years earlier, he had joined the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy (Shanghai Zhongguo huayuan), of which he later became a director.

Good Condition, provenance: private collection of Nottingham

67 x 69 cm