The Swallows' Return

Cheng Shifa (1921-2007) was born in Songjiang, Shanghai in 1921. He graduated from the Department of Traditional Chinese Painting of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1941. He was a painter of Shanghai Academy of Painting in 1956. He is good at drawing figures, landscapes, flowers, birds and animals as well as comic strips and book illustrations. He has successively been a member of the CPPCC National Committee, the Chinese Federation of Chinese Literature, the director of the Chinese Artists Association, the member of the Chinese National Academy of Painting, the president of the Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting, the vice-chairman of the Shanghai Artists Association, the professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, the member of the All-China Federation of Arts and the Shanghai Federation of Arts. He visited Japan, the United States, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong, gave lectures and held exhibitions. In 1986, he was listed in the World Celebrity List compiled by Cambridge University. In 1991, Cheng Shifa Painting Exhibition was held in Shanghai Museum of Art with unprecedented grandeur. In 1996, he donated 122 famous ancient paintings of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties to the country, which received warm response and high praise. He was also awarded the Shanghai Outstanding Contribution Award for Literature and Art. His representative works include Singing the Spring of the Motherland, Painting Skin, Peony Flowers, Beautiful Pedestrians, etc. The publications include Selected Paintings of Cheng Shifa, Selected Works of Cheng Shifa Flowers and Birds, Collections of Cheng Shifa Paintings, etc.