Generous Jin is just the tonic

Oil painting has been popular in China for a century and enjoys an important status in modern Chinese art. One of the prominent artist, Jin Shangyi, has donated 39 oil paintings and sketches to the National Art Museum of China. They include The Bride of Tajik, The Young Singer, Old Huang Binhong and People from Ba Dashan and reflect the different eras since the 1950s.

As the former president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Jin entered Peking State Art College in 1949 when he was just 15 and was trained by several masters there. In 1955, he went to the former Soviet Union to continue his studies and graduated with excellence. As one of New China's first generation of oil painters, Jin has long been known for his works on revolutionary and historical subjects.

Since the reforms and opening-up of the late 1970s, Jin has visited many museums in Europe and North America and studied the origin and development of European oil painting, particularly since the Renaissance.