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Chang Shu-Hong was one of many ambitious Chinese artists who went to Europe between two wars to study western painting. He arrived in France in 1928, began his academic training in Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts at Lyon, hesitated at times between textile design and painting, finally made up his mind to devote himself entirely to art. He went then to Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts at Paris, enrolled in the studio of Paul-Albert Laurens. During his sojourn in France, Chang Shu-Hong was awarded many times, the most remarkable was the prix d’argent won in 1936 at the Salon des Artistes Français, an achievement never equaled by other Chinese artistes.
When Chang Shu-Hong returned to China in 1936, he had all the allure of a successful artist with promising future. But the Sino-Japanese war broke up, disrupted everything. In 1942, Chang Shu-Hong went to Dunhuang, and dedicated the rest of his life to preservation and researches of Dunhuang murals. In a way, though still an excellent painter, Chang Shu-Hong had ceased to play an active role in the history of Chinese modern painting. The reasons for which Chang Shu-Hong abandoned painting after 1942 may have been multiple, but the most important must have been about art itself. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how Chang Shu-Hong had built up his art, and difficulties he encountered in transplanting western narrative painting in China, which at last prevented him from continuing. | en_US |