Editing History of painting (section)

===== Chinese oil paintings =====
Western techniques of oil paintings began entering China in the 19th century, becoming prevalent among Chinese artists and art students in the early 20th century, coinciding with China's growing engagement with the West. Artists such as [[Li Tiefu]], [[Hong Yi]], [[Xu Beihong]], [[Yan Wenliang]], [[Lin Fengmian]], [[Fang Ganmin]], [[Pan Yuliang|Pang Yuliang]] went abroad, predominantly to Paris and Tokyo, to learn Western art. Through them, artistic movements such as [[Impressionism]], [[Cubism]], [[Fauvism]], [[Post-Impressionism|Post-impressionism]] grew and thrived in China, only halted by the Second World War and the birth of the People's Republic of China, when modernistic artistic styles were seen as being inconsistent with the prevailing political ideals and realism was the only acceptable artistic form. Nonetheless, the legacy of the close engagement with Western art in the early 20th century endured. Oil paintings survived as an important medium in Chinese artistic scenes; traditional Chinese ink paintings were also changed as a result. 
<gallery widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="8">
File:Li-tiefu-portrait-of-madame-liu.jpg|''Portrait of Madame Liu'', (1942) [[Li Tiefu]] oil on canvas
File:Litiefu1904.jpg|''Portrait of Kang Youwei'' (1904) [[Li Tiefu]] oil on canvas
File:XuBeiHongMdmCheng.jpg|''Portrait of Madam Cheng'' (1941) Oil on board [[Xu Beihong]]
</gallery>