The Fair Ladies of Jiangnan: Traditional Chinese Paintings of Beauty from the Collection of Suzhou Museum

A special theme of ancient Chinese figure paintings, the fair lady painting evolved into an independent genre by the middle of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and peaked between the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

The show exhibits dozens of high-quality fair lady paintings from the mid-qing Dynasty to modern times collected by Suzhou Museum. The paintings on varied media including hanging scrolls, fans and album leaves vividly capture the beauty of women of the Jiangnan (meaning “south of the Yangtze River”) area during the Ming and Qing dynasties with a delicate and elegant painting style.