Sun Duoci

Sun Duoci was a Chinese artist who was famous for her oil paintings, sketches and ink and wash works. She was also a calligrapher and writer. One of her pieces has sold at auction for more than $100,000. She was born in 1912 in Shou County, Anhui, to a wealthy and educated family. Her grandfather, Sun Nai, was a high-ranking minister in the late Qing dynasty. Her father, Sun Chuan-yuan, was a scholar and a politician. She studied at Jinling Women's College and China Art University, where she met Xu Beihong, a renowned painter and professor. She became his assistant and lover, and later his third wife. She learned from him the techniques of Western painting and Fauvism, and applied them to Chinese traditional subjects, such as women, flowers and landscapes. Her most famous work is Portrait of Miss L. (1929), which depicts a young woman in a colorful dress and hat, with a vibrant background of flowers and trees. She was also a model of beauty and modernity, and appeared on the cover of the popular magazine Liangyou (The Young Companion) in 1929. She followed Xu Beihong to various places, such as Japan, Singapore, India and France, and exhibited her works in many countries. She also wrote several books and articles on art and culture. She was a member of the Fifth Moon Group, a group of avant-garde artists in Taiwan. She moved to the United States in 1960, and settled in Los Angeles. She died of natural causes in 1975, at the age of 63. She donated over 1200 of Xu Beihong's artworks to the Chinese state, and wrote a memoir of his life, which was published in 1982. She was regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Chinese painting and a bridge between the East and the West.