6. THE ARTISTIC COMMUNITY IN FRANCE
ENSBA (Fine Arts Academy) students
1945
First row from right : Yan Dehui, Wang Hua, Hua Tianyou, Zhou Lin, Xiong Bingming, unknown
Second row from right: unknown, unknown, Li Huinian, Li Xianming, Pan Yuliang, Huang Zhiping unknown, unknown
Third row : Zhang Ziyu, Liu Shenshan, unknown, unknown, Fang Yong , unknown, Li Fengbai, unknown, Liao Xinxue, Ma Xiaojun, Wang Dezhao, unknown
Far from their homeland, it was important for Chinese students in Paris not to remain isolated. From the moment they arrived on French soil, they regularly gathered either among friends, within associations, or at their places of study or exhibition.
The purpose of the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association was to support the elite of Chinese students and to develop Franco-Chinese relations, but it stopped its activities in 1940. Yan was member in 1939.
As far as artists were concerned, the most important one was the Association of Chinese Artists in France, created in January 1933 with the twin goals of studying Western contemporary art while helping to promote Chinese traditional art in France. Among the thirty founding members, the majority were Paris ENSBA students, including painter Xu Beihong.
There Yan Dehui met Pan Yuliang, a woman painter and former student of ENSBA in Lyon. She came with the first group of students admitted to the Franco-Chinese Institute in Lyon in 1921. During the 1940s, she took over the presidency of the Association, while the painter Zhou Lin served as general secretary. This network of Chinese students operated on a friendly, social, political and artistic level and had 31 members in 1948-1949:
陈世柏Chen Shibo, 张昊Zhang Hao, 周麟Zhou Lin, 郑新庭 Zheng Xinting,方镛Fang Yong,陈文元Chen Wenyuan,胡绯Hu Fei,胡自能Hu Zineng,刘深山Liu Shenshan, 刘文清Liu Wenqing, 李凤白Li Fengbai, 李献敏Li Xianmin, 马孝骏Ma Xiaojun, 何广乾He Guangqian, 姜露茜 Jiang Luxi, 熊秉明Xiong Bingming, 潘玉良Pan Yuliang, 张紫屿Zhang Ziyu, 张宁和Zhang Ninghe , 蒋丽琳Jiang Lilin, 谢景兰Xie Jinglan, 善德Ding Shande, 黄智平Huang Zhiping, 王纪音Wang Jiyin, 王熙民Wang Ximin, 吴 冠中Wu Guanzhong, 严德辉Yan Dehui, 赵无极Zhao Wuji, 吕霞光 Lü Xiaguang, 李惠年Li Huinian, Wei Hongwei 魏宏伟
Second row from right to left : Zhang Ziyu, Liao Xinxue, unknown, Pan Yuliang, Fang Yong, Hua Tianyou
Third row from right to left : Yan Dehui, Zhou Lin, Li Fengbai
From left to right: Ma Xiaojun, Yan Dehui, Li Huinian , Li Xianming, Pan Yuliang, Alexandre Tcherepnin, unknown, Wang Dezhao
1945
Second row from left to right: Zhou Lin, unknown, Hua Tianyou, Liao Xinxue, Wang Dezhao, Liu Shenshan, unknown, Zhang Ziyu, Guo Youshou, Yan Dehui 10th – First row: Pan Yuliang 3rd left, Zhou Xiaoyan, singer 3rd right
1946
First row from left to right: Zeng Yuran, Huang Zhiping, Pan Yuliang, Li Fengbai, Zhou Lin second row from left to right: Zhang Ziyu, Yan Dehui, Hua Tianyou, Denise Ly-Lebreton,
Liao Xinxue
1946
From left to right: Zhang Ziyu, Alexandre Tcherepnin, Li Xianming and their son, Liao Xinxue, Yan Dehui behind Pan Yuliang, Hua Tianyou, Zhou Lin
Léon Léonard, sculptor, son of Sculptor Agathon Léonard
Yan family with Léon Léonard and his wife Marguerite, 1954
On the right Pan Yuliang, on the left
Yan Dehui and Léon Léonard in Pan Yuliang’s studio
From left to right Léon Léonard, Yan Dehui, Charles Delhommeau, sculptor, Edouard-Marcel Sandoz, painter and sculptor
Written by Léon Léonard at the back of the photo, all preparing the 1951 SNBA Salon at the Grand Palais
“Deeply happy to express my great friendship to my friend Yen Te-Fai and to pay tribute to his great talent as a sculptor. It was art that brought us together, and friendship followed.”
Léon Léonard, Sculptor
With Pan Yuliang and Léon Léonard in Yan’s studio
Li Fengbai (1900-1984), painter and Denise Ly-Lebreton (1909-1995), sinologist, writer
Both settled in China and worked as translators at the Beijing Foreign Language Publishing House.
From left to right, Li Fengbai, Louise Yen, Yan Dehui, Denise Ly-Lebreton, Marina Ma and Ma Xiaojun in Ormesson, France
Second row right Li Fengbai and Denise Ly-Lebreton with Yan Dehui and his daughter Marianne, Beijing 1977
Liu You Huang, painter, entrepreneur, former President of the Association of Chinese Residents in France
On the right Liu You Huang, Mme Fang ; Liu’s children, Yan Dehui. On the left Mrs Liu and their third child (behind her, Liu’s bust in clay, in the course of making by Yan Dehui), Louise Yen fourth from left, Fang Yong, in Liu’s workshop
On the left Liu You Huang, Yan Dehui, Mrs Liu, Liu Haisu in Paris, May 28, 1986.
Ma Xiaojun, musician (1911-1991)
Musicologist, composer, conductor, founder of the Children’s Orchestra in New York, currently managed by his daughter Yeou-Cheng Ma.
Ma Xiaojun, his wife Marina Ma, their daughter Yeou-Cheng, – Louise and Marianne Yen
Yan with his daughter, Pan Yuliang, Yeou-Cheng and Yo-Yo Ma for their first concert in Paris in 1959
Ma and Yan families with Pan Yuliang
From left to right : Mrs Cai, Ma Xiaojun,
Louise and Marianne Yen, Yan Dehui,
Yeou-Cheng Ma, Cai Boling, scientist
in Ma family’s house in Ormesson, in the
suburbs of Paris, 1972
Pan Yuliang, painter, sculptor (1895-1977)
Pan Yuliang with Louise and Marianne Yen,
1953
Cheng family with Pan Yuliang as godmother and Yan Dehui as godfather of baby Ludmilla Cheng in the 1940’s
Concert given in 1945 in honor of the Chinese soldiers who fought in France during the 1914-1918 war.
Pan Yuliang and Yan Dehui on the program of a Chinese opera scene.
Left, text written and probably sung by Yan Dehui
Pan Yuliang and Yan Dehui,
playing Chinese opera.
Wang Dezhao 2nd left
Christmas in Paris, at the home of Yan family with Pan Yuliang and Simone Lenoir, Louise’s sister, 1960s
Zhou Lin, painter
Also founder of Euros Editions, specialized in Chinese art and delegate of China to UNESCO.
Yan family with Pan Yuliang, Zhou Lin and his wife Odette (pipe smoker too) in Yan’s place near Montargis, where Louise had a dental office.
Yan family in Zhou Lin’s house in Burgundy, with their dog Cesar, in the 1970s
Yan Dehui with some of his friends : Hua Tianyou, sculptor (1901-1986), Pan Yuliang, painter and sculptor (1895-1977)Zeng Zhushao, sculptor (1908-2012), Zhou Qingding, sculptor (1896-1984)
Second row on the left Yan Dehui, Pan Yuliang and Zhou Qingding
Pan Yuliang second left; Yan Dehui ; Hua Tianyou and Zhou Qingding standing on the right, 1938
On the left Denise Ly-Lebreton, Pan Yuliang third left, Zhou Qingding, Yan Dehui, 1938
Hua Tianyou and Yan Dehui
Zhou Qingding, who often signed
A Mo, in front of his studio in Lyon
1943, 10.10
Standing on the left, Zeng Zhushao,
on the right Zhou Qingding ; first row Zeng Yuran, Zeng Zhushao’s sister, seating in front of Yan Dehui
