Former Residence of Lin Fengmian in Shanghai

　　   The former Shanghai residence of Lin Fengmian is located at No. 53 Nanchang Road. This was his last dwelling on the Chinese mainland. The residence is a two-story red-brick building, old and worn, square and plain, without any distinctive lines or colors. Lin Fengmian lived here for 25 years.

　　   Lin Fengmian (1900–1991) was a renowned modern painter and art educator, founder of China Academy of Art, and one of the pioneers of modern art education in China. He was an advocate, pioneer, and the most important representative of the artistic ideal of “blending Chinese and Western styles.” Drawing on the nutrition of modern Western painting after Impressionism and combining it with the traditional Chinese ink painting style, while infusing his own life experiences, his painting philosophy had a profound influence on many later artists. Hence, he is often referred to as the “spiritual leader of 20th-century Chinese art.”

　　   At the age of 19, Lin Fengmian went to France for work-study. He first studied Western painting at the Dijon Art School in France, then transferred to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris for further studies. He was a world-renowned master painter, the earliest advocate and foremost representative of “blending Chinese and Western styles,” and a trailblazer and pioneer in Chinese art education. After returning to China in 1925, he served as the president and professor of the Beiping Art Specialized School. In 1926, invited by Cai Yuanpei, then president of the National University of Peking, he became the director of the Art Education Committee under the National University of Peking. In 1927, again at Cai Yuanpei’s invitation, Lin Fengmian went to West Lake in Hangzhou to establish China’s first institution of higher learning for the arts — the National Academy of Art (now China Academy of Art) — where he served as president. Later, he lived a reclusive life in Shanghai, indifferent to fame and wealth. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he worked as a painter at the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, and as an advisor, executive director, and director of the China Artists Association. In the 1970s, Lin Fengmian settled in Hong Kong. In 1979, he held a solo exhibition in Paris, which was a great success.

　　   Address: No. 53 Nanchang Road, Shanghai

　　   Transportation: Routes 167, 926, Inner Ring 146, 920, Sightseeing Bus Line 1, and Route 42