The beauty of women on canvas

The year 1902 was an auspicious one for Taiwanese art, as it is the birth date of three of the country's master painters -- Li Mei-shu (李梅樹), Liao Chi-chun (廖繼春), and Chang Wan-chuan (張萬傳). Of these three, Li is the first to be honored with a solo exhibition at the palace museum in commemoration of the 100 years since his birth (if you use the Taiwanese method to count age).

The exhibition showcases 33 of his watercolor and oil paintings on loan from the Li Mei-shu Memorial Gallery (李梅樹紀念館) in Sanhsia (三峽), Taipei County. Produced between 1920 to 1980, the artwork on view includes many of Li's famous portraits of his female relatives. The best known of these is the prize-winning Young Woman at Rest (小憩之女) from 1935, which is a portrait of Li's daughter-in-law Liu Tseng-mei (劉曾妹). This painting is famous for the lady's vivid gesture of raising her forefinger daintily touching her lip. In a nod to his impressionist forebears, Li snuck reproductions of paintings by Renoir and Van Gogh into the foreground of the portrait.

Another eye-catching portrait is that of the artist's first daughter Li Li-hsia (李麗霞) titled Seated Lady 3 (小憩三). It's was a Li family custom for the daughters to sit for a portrait before their marriages so that the family could keep an image of their child. Each daughter would also be given a portrait with roses as an auspicious symbol for fortune and well-being. This painting is also known for the dolls in the background, which reveal the daughter's profession as a doll maker.

Many of Li's portraits seem almost photographic in their precision, especially Li's portrait of his third daughter-in-law titled Enjoying the Water (戲水). The sunlight seems to sparkle as the lady plays with the water and as the viewer walks around the painting the woman seemingly turns her eyes and body around to follow you.

Li had no shortage of subject matter, with five daughters and three sons and a large extended family. When the show opened May 4, over 70 of Li's children, grandchildren and relatives, including eight women who were subjects of his paintings, were on site at the Palace Museum with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Li's children have been especially active in the preservation of their father's artistic legacy, opening a gallery in Sanhsia in 1995 with about 500 works, and they were the driving force behind his exhibition.

Li's status in art history, however, goes beyond portraits of his family members. He is an earnest realist with a genuine concern for society conveyed through his paintings that show life during the transitional period when Taiwan returned from Japanese rule. One representative piece from this period is At Dusk (黃昏) from 1948. The painting is a heroic depiction of female peasants toiling with their spirit unbroken through hard times and is often compared to Jean Francois Millet's famed piece The Gleaners.

Also featured in the Palace Museum exhibit are beautiful landscape paintings of Sanhsia, Li's hometown. These serve as a fine reminder of an idyllic countryside. Morning Along the River (河邊清晨) and Spring Morning in Sanhsia (三峽春曉) depict scenes of people lingering along the Tamsui River banks in an ode to the land and the people.

As well as being an artist, Li was also an educator, who, between 1963 and 1973 served as dean of the fine arts department at the National Taiwan Institute of Art. He once served as the chairman for his hometown's assembly and then as a Taipei County councilman and was an active force in preserving cultural heritage sites. One major project he participated in was the reconstruction for the Tsu-shih Temple (祖師廟) in Sanhsia, to which he dedicated his energy for almost 40 years until he passed away in 1983.