untitled, Sanyu or Chang Yu

Sanyu was born at the end of the Qing dynasty in rural Sichuan, China. As a boy, he studied Chinese calligrap which can be seen in the spare yet sensual line used to render the figure of a sleeping woman. Sanyu left for Paris in 1921 among the first wave of Chinese artists to study in France. Sanyu lived most of his life in poverty as an expatriate in Paris, where he died without achieving commercial success.