He Xiangning; 何香凝; Ho Hsiang-ning

He Xiangning, *Green Bird on Branch*, ink and colour on paper, 29.6 x 77.3 cm, Private collection, © He Xiangning

He Xiangning
Chinese: 何香凝; Wade–Giles: Ho Hsiang-ning;
27 June 1878, Hong Kong
– 1 September 1972, Beijing

was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, painter, and poet.

She was one of the earliest members of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary movement Tongmenghui.

As Minister for Women’s Affairs in Sun’s Nationalist government in Guangzhou (Canton), she advocated equal rights for women and organized China’s first rally for International Women’s Day in 1924.

After her husband’s assassination in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek’s persecution of the Communists in 1927, she stayed away from party politics for two decades, but actively worked to organize resistance against the Japanese invasion of China.

He Xiangning, *Lion*, 1914, ink and color on paper, 63 x 49 cm, © He Xiangning

A renowned painter of the Lingnan School of Chinese art, He Xiangning was elected the third chairperson of the China Artists Association in July 1960.

She particularly enjoyed painting plum blossoms, pine trees, tigers, and lions.

A collection of her paintings was published in 1979 in Guangdong.
On 18 April 1997, He Xiangning Art Museum was opened in Shenzhen. It was China’s first national-level art museum named after an individual artist, and Communist Party general secretary Jiang Zemin wrote the calligraphy for the museum’s name. In June 1998, China Post issued a set of three stamps (1998-15T) featuring her paintings.via Wikipedia