Introduction to Mr. Peng Youshan

　　Mr. Peng Youshan was a renowned Chinese artist, educator, and the founder of modern ceramic education in our country. Due to his profound knowledge of both Chinese and Western cultures, his superb artistic skills, and his remarkable achievements, he has been included in the “Collection of Paintings by Distinguished Modern and Contemporary Chinese Artists.” He is another outstanding art master from our province, following the legendary masters Bada Shanren and Fu Baoshi.

　　Peng Youshan, known by the pseudonym Chaozhen, also went by the aliases Hu Pi Jushi and Natural Believer. Born in Yugan, Jiangxi Province in 1911, he entered the Department of Fine Arts at Central University in Nanjing in 1931, where he studied Western painting under Mr. Xu Beihong. In middle age, he became a disciple of the elder artist Bai Shi.

　　In his youth, he was passionately devoted to creating large-scale figure paintings using symbolic and allegorical techniques. In his later years, he came to favor depicting natural landscapes—such as beasts, mountains and rivers, flowers and birds—and was particularly skilled at portraying tigers, orchids, and bamboo. He gained widespread acclaim both at home and abroad for his masterpieces including "Nightmare," "A World of Great Harmony," "Hero and Beauty," "Sailing Together in the Same Boat," "The Whole Nation Joys in Celebrating Peace," "Immortality," "Long Roar," and "Hundred Tigers." He has held solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and other cities, receiving rave reviews from audiences. His works are now housed in collections at the National Art Museum of China, the Truman Library in the United States, the Central Institute of Literature and History, the Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, the Guangzhou Art Museum, the Zhejiang Institute of Literature and History, the Gu Yuan Art Museum, as well as in the collections of prominent historical figures from China and abroad, including Chiang Kai-shek, Harry S. Truman, and George C. Marshall.

　　His works include “Ten Methods of Modern Painting,” “The Art of Painting Tigers,” “Peng Youshan’s Collection of Paintings,” and “A Collection of Paintings by Famous Artists of Modern and Contemporary China,” among others.

　　He passed away on August 16, 1997, at the age of 87 due to illness.