21 Facts About Jiang Biwei

Jiang Biwei was influential in the lives of the painter Xu Beihong and the politician Chang Tao-fan.

Jiang Biwei published her memoirs and she is portrayed in Chinese historical dramas.

Jiang Biwei's father Jiang Meisheng was a scholar and poet who wrote a book on the Zhuangzi, and her mother Dai Qingbo was a poet.

Jiang Biwei attended the Young Girls Normal School in Changzhou.

Jiang Biwei would come to visit her family and he and Jiang became close.

Xu was set to go to Japan to study and Jiang Biwei was upset that she would shortly be married to the Zha family.

At another point Jiang Biwei had to embroider at five francs a piece to make ends meet.

However, Jiang Biwei was pregnant and she returned to China where she had a son, Xu Boyang, in 1927 and a daughter, Xu Lili, two years later.

In 1933 Professor Xu was asked to go on a European tour with his exhibition and Jiang Biwei asked to go with him.

Xu was still using Jiang Biwei as a model and the only work of Xu that was sold in Europe was a painting of the sitting figure of Jiang Biwei.

The gossip was too much for Jiang Biwei to bear and in her anger she destroyed artworks at Xu's studio which featured Sun.

Chang was vice-minister of education and Jiang Biwei was able to re-use the skills she learnt in Paris by teaching French at the local university.

In 1943 Jiang Biwei staged an exhibition in Chongqing of her art collection, which included nearly three dozen of Xu's paintings.

Jiang Biwei followed it three days later with an engagement announcement.

Jiang Biwei's parents had both died and that year her son decided to leave and join the army.

Jiang Biwei saw that this was time to formally end her marriage and she requested a substantial settlement.

Jiang Biwei moved to Taiwan when the Kuomintang government lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to the island.

In 1958, Chang's wife returned to Taiwan, and Jiang Biwei left his life.

On 16 December 1978, Jiang Biwei died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Taipei.

Xu Beihong painted several portraits of Jiang Biwei, including a 1933 painting which is in Kyoto.

The painting of the nude Jiang Biwei was then sold for approximately $11m in 2010 at Beijing Jiuge Auctions.