The Four Great Academy Presidents

The Four Great Academy Presidents (or The Four Great Art Academy Presidents) is the title earned by four pioneers of Chinese modern art: Yan Wenliang, Lin Fengmian, Xu Beihong and Liu Haisu.

Born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Yan began studying painting in 1909, founded the Suzhou Art Academy in 1922 and went to Paris in 1929, enrolling in the L'Ecole Superieure Nationale des Beaux Arts, making him, along with Xu Beihong and Sanyu, one of the earliest Chinese artists to study abroad in France.

Liu Haisu (16 March 1896 – 7 August 1994) was a prominent twentieth-century Chinese painter and a noted art educator.

Xu Beihong (19 July 1895 – 26 September 1953) was a Chinese painter born in Yixing, Jiangsu province.

He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes – a show of his high proficiency in an essential Western art technique.