Sanyu (painter)

The family's wealth allowed Sanyu to be schooled at home, which included calligraphy lessons with the Sichuan calligrapher Zhao Xi (1877–1938) and painting lessons with his father, known in Nanchong for his skill in painting lions and horses.

Growing up in Nanchong, approximately 300 kilometres from Chengdu, Sanyu was most probably unaffected by the discontent that was brewing in the major cities of China at this time.

Sanyu, along with Xu Beihong, Yan Wenliang, Lin Fengmian and Liu Haisu (collectively, the Four Great Academy Presidents) are widely known as the most prominent first-generation Chinese oil-painters who studied in France in the early 1900s.

Sanyu met his future wife at La Grande Chaumière.

A young lady of twenty-one, Marcelle was impressed with Sanyu's talent and requested that he teach her.

They became intimate and lived together for three years before getting married.

Marcelle recalls that although they shared a lively time together, they never had enough money.

Sanyu, however, seemed unconcerned, spending most of his time leisurely sitting in the cafés sketching for hours on the placemats and hanging out with friends.

Accustomed to his brother's support, he was confident that money coming from home would continue, but the increasingly long intervals between allowances already anticipate the financial difficulties about to beset Sanyu.

Sanyu or Chang Yu (14 October 1901 – August 1966) was a Chinese-French painter.

Chang Yu was born in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, on 14 October 1901.

His family owned one of the largest silk-weaving mills in Sichuan, the Dehe Silk Factory, which was managed by Sanyu's eldest brother Chang Junmin.

The business was so successful that Junmin earned the accolade Millionaire Chang of Nanchong and the annals of the city of Nanchong record and applaud his accomplishments.

Thirty-seven years older than Sanyu, Junmin doted on his younger brother and, recognizing his interest and talent in art, spared little to support and encourage all his artistic endeavors.

After the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the Republic in 1911, China was faced with growing autocracy from within and encroaching imperialism from without.

Crippled by these dual tensions, compounded by the ineffectiveness of antiquated social and political systems, China was rendered impotent, forcing many to reassess the predicament of their torn nation.

The unacceptable terms of the Treaty of Versailles forced a counter-movement that gained momentum through student organizations across the country, culminating in the historic May Fourth Incident.

Academicians and students led the revolt against foreign infringement of China's territorial sovereignty and rights to self-rule.

They recognized that to regain their country's integrity, China needed to strengthen itself through reform.

A unified voice demanded the rejuvenation of the country through modernization, which, at that time, meant Westernization.

Many resolved, therefore, to travel abroad to learn the ways of the West in order to benefit their troubled nation.

As a response to this call, students traveled to France under a government-sponsored work-study program.

Although it is uncertain whether Sanyu participated in this program, his decision to make France his destination in 1921 was no doubt inspired by the migrating wave of art students, such as Xu Beihong and his partner Jiang Biwei with whom Sanyu became close friends.

Xu and Jiang, who had arrived a year before Sanyu, were already finding life in the City of Light too costly for their meager income and decided to move to Berlin where living was cheaper.

Sanyu, with no set agenda in Paris and unfettered by financial concerns, thanks to Junmin's generous support, decided to go along with them to Berlin.

During this time, Sanyu formed friendships with other Chinese artists and writers, but instead of making art, they formed a culinary club, gathering daily to plan and prepare gastronomic specialties of their hometowns and having a good time.

Only two works by Sanyu, Peonies and Landscape with Willow Trees, both painted in traditional brush and ink style, survive, further attesting to the lack of artistic activity during this period.

After two years in Berlin, Sanyu returned to Paris in 1923.

While most of the Chinese art students aspired to enroll in the esteemed École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Sanyu preferred the less academic environment of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

Here, Sanyu plunged into what to him was the exotic world of nude drawing.

One can imagine the excitement the young Sanyu must have felt being in a studio where nude models, forbidden at home, posed at arm's reach.

In this free and uninhibited environment, he could experiment with Western sketching techniques to explore and express the lines of the human form.

In 1929, a year after his marriage, Sanyu met Henri-Pierre Roché, an astute and dynamic art collector and dealer better known as the author of Jules et Jim and Les deux anglaises et le continent.

Sanyu was now facing financial difficulties as funds from Junmin became irregular due to the downturn in the silk business back home.

Roché, who had a keen interest in discovering talent, with artists like Marie Laurencin, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, and Constantin Brâncuși to his credit, saw promise in Sanyu and agreed to act as his dealer.

According to Gertrude Stein, Roché "knew everybody ... and could introduce anybody to anybody."

Sanyu’s early works in Paris comprise exclusively ink and pencil drawings of nudes and figures, of which over 2000 examples survive today.

Since Sanyu was trained in Chinese calligraphy in his youth, it is not surprising that a majority of his nude drawings was done in Chinese ink and brush.

The trained calligraphic stroke, with its varying innuendos, afforded Sanyu a unique chance to delineate the human body, not so much in terms of its anatomy but more as a means of expressing the beauty and sensitivity of a flowing line.

With only a few strokes, relying on the fluidity and innate qualities of brush and ink, he was able to capture the essence of his subject.