Chen Peiqiu

Chen Peiqiu (29 December 1922 – 26 June 2020) was a Chinese calligrapher and guohua painter, often acclaimed as the foremost Chinese woman painter. She and her husband Xie Zhiliu were one of the most famous couples in Chinese visual arts. The government of Shanghai opened a museum in Nanhui New City dedicated to them.

Biography Chen Peiqiu was born in 1922 in Nanyang, Henan Province. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, she took refuge with her family in Kunming, Yunnan Province. In childhood she was influenced by her mother, who was an artist, but Chen was more interested in engineering, as she thought it would be more beneficial to the society. Although she was accepted by the engineering department of National Southwestern Associated University,

Art market Chen Peiqiu is one of the most prominent modern women artists in China. She has been listed on every edition of the Hurun Art List of best-selling living Chinese artists at auction, since its inception, until her death in 2020. In 2016, she was ranked number 16 on the list with sales of US$7.9 million. Only three of the top 100 artists on the list were women, and Chen was the highest-ranked among them. One of her landscape paintings was sold in 2014 for $3.4 million.

Honours

In late 2014, Chen Peiqiu was awarded the lifetime achievement award of the Shanghai Art and Literature Prize. Some of her calligraphy is also preserved at the Tianfei Palace in Songjiang's Fangta Park.