Jiang Biwei (Chinese: 蔣碧薇; pinyin: Jiǎng Bìwēi; 9 April 1899 – 12 December 1978) was influential in the lives of the painter Xu Beihong and the politician Chang Tao-fan.
[2] In 1916 her family moved to avoid conflict in Yixing and so that her father could be a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Xu was set to go to Japan to study and Jiang was upset that she would shortly be married to the Zha family.
[2] Xu's bursary was not always regular and although he enrolled at top art schools they had to briefly move to Berlin where their francs would stretch further.
[5] After they returned from their tour of Europe via Russia, her husband and Sun Duoci would go on sketching trips with other students.
The gossip was too much for Jiang to bear and in her anger she destroyed artworks at Xu's studio which featured Sun.
In 1938, Xu made a public announcement in a newspaper that he would sever his relationship with Jiang, but Sun still rejected him and married someone else.
Instead, the rumours about Xu's affair were spread by Zhang Daofan, who was attempting to separate Jiang from her husband.
Chang was vice-minister of education and Jiang was able to re-use the skills she learnt in Paris by teaching French at the local university.
[2] In 1943 Jiang staged an exhibition in Chongqing of her art collection, which included nearly three dozen of Xu's paintings.
[8] Jiang Biwei moved to Taiwan when the Kuomintang government lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to the island.
Chang Tao-fan later became President of the Legislative Yuan (equivalent to Premier) of the Republic of China on Taiwan.
[9] After the sale it was claimed that the painting was not by Xu Beihong, but rather was a piece created in 1983 by a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.