Chen Jun

Chen Jun was born in 1935 into a family of professional artists in Deyang, Sichuan.  

His grandfather’s and father’s generation supported their families by painting professionally. 

His uncle, Chen Jiabin, was an accomplished artist 

who earned an entry in the 1986 Dictionary of Chinese Artists. 

His uncle taught all the cousins to paint when Chen Jun was nine years old.  

His talent and diligence soon distinguished him from his other cousins.  

His dedication to classical Chinese painting traditions was already apparent in his childhood, 

which he devoted to studying and painting old masterpieces. 

In 1949, when he was seventeen, an exhibition of Song and Yuan (12th -14th century)

masterpieces from the Beijing Palace Museum was held in Zhongshan Park in Chengdu. 

Too poor to pay for transportation, he and his father walked seventy-two kilometers 

from Deyang to Chengdu to see the exhibition.  

Staying at a small inn in Chengdu, Chen Jun went to view the exhibition during the daytime, 

memorizing the details of the paintings.  

At the end of each day he returned to the inn and spent the night reproducing the paintings by candle light.  

In order to learn the composition, style of brushstrokes, 

and personal signatures of his favorite masters, 

he returned many times to study the same painting until he felt that he had succeeded in capturing the master.

 

Chen Jun has been a dedicated professional artist for the past sixty years, 

retiring in 1991 as the only surviving artist in his family of his generation.  

His only child, a daughter, is not able to carry on the family tradition, 

so Chen Jun looks to others, in China and the west, 

with whom to share his passion for classical Chinese painting traditions.  

Painting is his life. 

His paintings are well-appreciated in China, Australia and Taiwan 

and have received many national recognition and awards. 

Chen Jun offers New Masterpieces of traditional Chinese paintings.