Deng Fen(1894 – 1964)
Deng Fen(1894 – 1964), with courtesy name Songxian, addressed himself by various pseudonyms including Tanshu, Congxin Xiansheng, Laotan, Jianweng, and Yongren. He was born in Guangzhou to a family of salt traders who were well-recognised literary scholars. Deng was the grandson of Deng Shixian, who worked in the Hanlin Academy during the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor in the Qing dynasty. His father, Deng Cizhi, was a poet. His ancestral home was in Xiqiao, a town in Nanhai District of Guangdong Province, and he lived in Taipingsha in Guangzhou. Deng once studied in the Nanjing Jinan Middle School.
By 1912, Deng Fen began teaching in schools and colleges, including Shimin, Bagui and Bayi middle schools, the Senior Novice Normal School, Panyu Normal School, Jiaozhong Normal School and Guangzhou Municipal Fine Arts School.
As a young man, Deng studied painting under Dong Yikui and Zhang Shi’en. Besides being well-known for his depictions of flowers, he excelled at illustrating the lively female figures which were different from the sickly beauties common in the Qing dynasty, and he could deftly depict birds in just a few strokes. He was also proficient in miniature engraving techniques.
In 1923, Deng and fellow painters founded the Guihai Painting Cooperative, later renamed the Chinese Painting Research Society. The society acquired almost 300 members. In 1929, Deng represented Guangdong at the first National Art Exhibition that was organised by the country’s education department in Shanghai. The year after, he won first prize in an international art exhibition in Belgium that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the country’s independence. That same year, Deng travelled to many regions including Java, Surabaya, Bali, North Borneo, and Sandakan in Sabah. After the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, he spent most of his time in Macao and frequently travelled to Hong Kong. He painted and taught until he passed away in Hong Kong in 1964.