Inspiring artists and fans

An ongoing exhibition at the National Museum of China showcases works from the French Revolution to the early 20th century. Lin Qi reports.

The Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts has had far-reaching influence on the 20th-century Chinese art. The 370-year-old Parisian national art school nurtured China's first generation of oil painters and sculptors, some of whom later became headmasters and professors at China's prestigious art schools, such as Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian. There were also former director of the national art museum, Liu Kaiqu, and renowned artists such as Wu Guanzhong.

The Chinese alumni of the school, also called Beaux-Arts de Paris, also included Chang Shuhong and his first wife and sculptor, Chen Zhixiu, who lived in Paris in the 1930s.