Cai William was born in 1904 and is Cai Yuanpei's eldest daughter. In 1913, he went to France with his parents and went to a local church school. In 1916, he returned to China to study at Conde School in Beijing and was the first graduate of the school. In 1923, he followed his parents to Belgium and went to the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts to study painting; at the suggestion of his father, he went to the Lyon Fine Arts College in France to study oil painting. He returned to China in 1928 and became a professor in the Department of Western Painting at the National Hangzhou Art College. He died of dying from labor in 1939.
Exotic memories 80.5cm×59.5cm 1928
from Wu Guanzhong 's prose essays I learned about his painting mentor Cai William. Her father is famous. As Cai Yuanpei's daughter, as the daughter of Ye Shengtao , as the grandson of Ye Zhaoyan , he wrote in the article: Mr. Cai is too famous. As a celebrity daughter, as long as he mentions it, he will inevitably talk about her father.
My father is famous in the education circle of the Republic of China. As the eldest daughter, Cai William has extraordinary achievements in painting art. Unfortunately, the sky is not a lie, and she did not give her the time and opportunity like Pan Yuliang, otherwise her painting art would not be inferior to Pan Yuliang.
On June 3, 1904, Cai Yuanpei and his second wife Huang Zhongyu gave birth to their eldest daughter in Shanghai and named Cai William Cai. This name comes from the German "Wilhelm", a German boy-like name that embodies Cai Yuanpei's yearning to go to Germany to study and educate and save the country.
Cai Yuanpei and his wife and William Cai (second from left) were taken in Germany in September 1921
In September 1912, Cai Yuanpei and his wife and children left Shanghai to Europe. In October, they arrived in France. William entered a local church school in Paris. She went abroad with her father three times. Her more than ten years of traveling to Europe allowed her to receive a good European education. In my memory, the European and foreign architectural landscapes appeared on William Tsai’s canvas many years later.
The last time was in 1923. William Cai followed his father Cai Yuanpei to visit Europe. He followed his father's words and entered the Royal School of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, and then transferred to the School of Fine Arts in Lyon, France. During his study abroad, he worshiped the master of painting Leonardo da Vinci and was determined to become the Chinese Leonardo da Vinci. She tried hard to transform the spirit of Western modernism into her creations, and her painting style became closer and closer to French Post-Impressionism.
pot flowers Cai William and Lin Wenzheng
1928, Lin Fengmian was appointed as the dean of the National Academy of Arts. He hired Lin Wenzheng as the provost. Cai William was 24 years old at the time and taught at the National Hangzhou Art College. Lin and Cai reunite in Hangzhou, which seems to be an arrangement in the dark. Previously, both of them had studied in France. Chinese painters such as Lin Fengmian and Lin Wenzheng are very active in the French art world. The talented Lin Wenzheng was highly appreciated by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, and regarded him as his good son-in-law, secretly matching his daughters Cai William and Lin Wenzheng. Perhaps because the fate has not come, the two were in France, but they have not seen each other for three years, but the impression they left on each other is still profound. At this time, both for colleagues and for the tenderness of Xizihu, the two's love finally kicked off and soon entered a climax.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Wu Guanzhong recalled in his book: When Hangzhou Art College moved to Yuanling, Hunan after the July 7 Incident, he drew a large number of watercolor paintings after the school's grades exhibition, and won awards. Cai William appreciated it very much and sent a message to exchange one of her oil paintings for Wu Guanzhong's watercolors, which inspired him. At that time, William Tsai, Wu Guanzhong wrote: "She has never taught me in the classroom and I don't know each other. I only look at her from a respectful perspective. She is a young woman, often wearing black clothes, beautiful body, and few words, looking particularly quiet and introverted.”
Former residence Maling Mountain House
Lin Wenzheng (first from right) He took a photo with his relatives and friends in Maling Mountain House
After marriage, Cai William and Lin Wenzheng used the dowry gold given by Cai Yuanpei and the savings of Lin Wenzheng to build a small Chinese-style villa next to the Yuquan of West Lake . Cai Yuanpei personally titled it: Maling Mountain House.
20's "Picture of William Cai"
William Cai once spent three months in Maling Mountain, and devoted all her talents and all her love to paint a portrait for Lin Wenzheng; and in normal times, she is famous for her quick moves. In the painting, Lin Wenzheng is young and handsome, with a firm expression, soft and hard brushstrokes, and moving in quiet and moving. The background is the beautiful West Lake Lake and Mountain where we meet day and night. 50 years later, Lin Wenzheng said emotionally: "I later understood why she painted my shirt like a pair of silver armor, and why she painted open lakes and mountains behind me, because she understood me best, and she drew my soul! "
In the days of displaced, Lin Wenzheng and his wife often recalled their days at Hangzhou Art College, which was the best period in their lives. The picture shows Lin Wenzheng (second chapter
It's a pity that such beautiful love cannot resist the ravages of war, nor can they guarantee the perfection of marriage. In May 1939, during the War of Resistance, William Cai was in a state of disagreement, threw away his husband and flew to heaven. Before her death, she wrote four painful words: "The country is in trouble, the family is in trouble." Lin Wenzheng was in pain and swore to himself: he would never renew his marriage for life.
Tsai William’s self-portrait
. In 1936, before Tsai William passed away, a painting "Austrian Dancing Girl" she painted at the Fuchang Hotel in Nanjing was ordered at a high price by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the National Government as a gift to the German Ambassador to China Todman. The reason is not that she is the daughter of the Cai family, but that this young female professor made a big splash with the paintings exhibited by another female painter Pan Yuliang at the first National Art Exhibition.
William Cai's husband is well aware of his wife's style. In "The Paintings of William Cai" written by Professor Lin Wenzheng, he wrote: "She has her own opinions on art and does not blindly follow: 'She has a stubborn personality and does not take the style of a teacher as a model, but wants to explore the true meaning of ancient painting, and is not overly obscene. She stayed for three years and was not influenced by the painting leader Lubans (i.e. Lubans). She thought that her flesh was more important than spirit and her beauty was better than reality. At this time, her ambitions were concentrated in the Italian Florentines, and she praised the painting styles of Vinci, Portizelli, and Mikron, which were both spiritual and physical.'
William Cai and her husband Lin Wenzheng and his children
Lin Wenzheng (1903-1990), from Meixian, Guangdong Province. He studied literature and art history at the University of Paris, France; after returning to China, he served as the first provost and professor of art history at the National Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, and has successively taught French literature at Southwest Associated University, , Sino-French University, and Nanjing University.
Lin Fengmian (first left), Lin Wenzheng and Wu Dayu took a photo with
html It is precisely because of William Tsai's early death that her paintings rarely appear at auctions. The only original work of William Tsai's work, "Remembrances of the Foreign Country", was sold in Shanghai Auction in 2005. The painting was finally sold for 154,000 yuan, so it is important for the artist to live a long life.
