Sanyu
1895-1966 · Chinese (active in France) · School of Paris, Chinese Modernism
Biography
Sanyu, born Chang Yu in Sichuan, settled in Paris in the early 1920s and spent the rest of his life there, sketching at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and moving among the artists of Montparnasse. His reclining nudes, flowers in pots and solitary animals reduce form to a few supple lines and flat fields of colour, joining Chinese calligraphic brushwork with the modernism of Matisse and the School of Paris. He died poor in 1966 and was rediscovered decades later. Today he is one of the most expensive Chinese modern painters: his Five Nudes made about US$38.9 million at Christie's Hong Kong in 2019, and his scarce major oils regularly headline Hong Kong evening sales.
Recent auction results
| Beijing CircusSotheby's, Hong Kong | $6.03M | Mar 29, 2026 | sothebys.com |
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Market
- Liquidity: Medium
Museums
- National Museum of History, Taipei
- Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Parigi
- Musée Cernuschi, Parigi
- Musée Guimet, Parigi
Sources
- HENI News, The Five Nudes that set Sanyu's auction record
- Sotheby's, Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction Hong Kong, 29 marzo 2026
- Sotheby's, Sanyu in America: the untold story of Beijing Circus
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