Dong Xiwen

CHINA, Zhejiang, Shaoxing

Dong Xiwen was a painter and fine arts educator who studied at several different art schools. He learned oil painting from masters such as, Lin Fengmian, Yan Wenliang, Liu Haisu, and Chang Shuhong, and subsequently specialized in both oil and watercolor painting. In 1942, he worked as a researcher at the Dunhuang Research Academy, where he dedicated himself to copying Dunhuang murals. He replicated such murals as Buddha in a White Robe Teaching the Dharma and Prince Mahasattva Jataka at Mogao Cave 428.
In 1946, he successfully organized the Exhibition of Dong Xiwen’s Copying and Creative Works of Dunhuang Murals in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Jiangsu. In the same year, he was invited to teach at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he was in charge of the Dong Xiwen Studio. In addition to teaching, Dong often traveled to Tibet where he painted natural scenery and the local culture. His oil paintings include Spring in Tibet and Shepherdess in Kazakhstan, which are kept at the China People’s Revolution Military Museum and National Art Museum of China in Beijing. He also authored Collection of Dong Xiwen’s Paintings and Collection of Dong Xiwen’s Artworks.