As early as 400 years ago, Italian Catholic priest Matteo Ricci and others came to China to preach and brought European oil paintings to China. Li Tiefu, the earliest Guangdong painter who went abroad to study oil painting, came to the United States in 1887. He was once employed by J.S. gold placer, and supported Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities with bonuses and proceeds from painting sales. Li Shutong, who first studied painting in Japan, returned to China in 19 10, and later worked as an art teacher in Tianjin, Hangzhou and Nanjing. He initiated plaster model and human sketch, and organized a foreign painting research society at school.
After 1949, China oil painters faced a brand-new historical period. The painters in the old liberated areas and the Kuomintang-controlled areas have merged into a United team, and the great social changes have made profound changes in the content and form of oil painting creation.
Expand the achievements of old painters Wu Guanzhong and Wei, and middle-aged painters Luo, Thomos and Cao Dali. In their exploration of the unique feelings of life and the expressive methods full of personality. Young painters Xin Dongwang and Yu Yunfei pay more attention to the expression of oil painters' concern about painting forms and personality characteristics. The appearance of "Father" (Luo Zhongli) and "Tibetan Group Painting" Chen Danqing (see color picture "Tibetan Group Painting-Entering the City" (China Modern)) marks the beginning of a new era and the end of an old era in creative thinking.
A large number of new young painters observe life and art completely with new eyes. They widely absorbed the forms and concepts of western modern painting and conducted bold artistic experiments. The long-standing monotonous and clumsy appearance of China's oil paintings is being corrected. Judging from the relationship among painters, works and audiences, oil painting has become a kind of China art that can express the psychology and feelings of China people and can be fully understood by China people.
Baidu Encyclopedia-China Oil Painting