Qin Xuanfu

Qin Xuanfu was born in 1906 in Guilin, Guangxi, China. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 1929 with a bachelor's degree, then traveled to Paris, where he studied from 1930 to 1934. There he trained in painting under Lucien Simon at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts, studied Western art history at the Ecole du Louvre, and pursued further study in art history and archaeology at the Institute of Art and Archaeology, University of Paris. No source documents a specific French degree or diploma being conferred; his training there is consistently described as intensive study and studio admission rather than a titled credential.

After returning to China in 1934, Qin taught Western oil painting and Western art history at several institutions, including Peiping Art College, Tsinghua University, the National Academy of Arts, and the art departments of Central University and Nanjing University. In 1952 he became a professor of oil painting and Western fine arts history at the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Normal University, where he later served as Dean. In 1963 he was appointed to an editorial role compiling the Western art history section of a national Chinese reference encyclopedia, a project that was published sixteen years later, in 1979. That same year, he held what is described as his second solo exhibition of oil paintings, at the Jiangsu Provincial Gallery in Nanjing.

His oil painting "Mother Teaching" is recorded on his official biographical archive as having received a Third National Fine Arts Exhibition Award, described there as a milestone in his early career; the exact year of that exhibition and award is not confirmed in available sources. He continued painting, writing, and teaching in Nanjing for the rest of his career. Qin Xuanfu died in 1998; his exact date and place of death are not documented in any obituary, museum statement, or major art-press source found to date.

Independent, English-language critical commentary on Qin Xuanfu is limited in the sources reviewed for this profile. The clearest documented mark of contemporary recognition is that his oil painting "Mother Teaching" received a Third National Fine Arts Exhibition Award, noted on his official biographical archive as a milestone in his early career; the exact year of that exhibition is not confirmed in available sources. The same archive also references praise from named contemporaries in Chinese art circles, but the original publications for those remarks have not been independently verified, so specific quotations are not reproduced here.

No verified auction sale for Qin Xuanfu has been located as of 2026-07-13, and no auction house, price, or sale date can be confirmed from available sources. His work instead survives primarily inside Chinese public institutions rather than in a documented secondary market. Works attributed to him are listed as part of the permanent collections of the Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum in Nanjing, the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum in Beijing, the Nanjing Museum, the Yuhuatai Martyrs Memorial Museum in Nanjing, the Erqi Memorial Tower in Zhengzhou, and the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Normal University. No gallery or estate representative currently administers sales or authentication on his behalf, based on available research.

Qin Xuanfu's standing rests on institutional and academic recognition in China rather than on an established auction history, and no catalogue raisonne exists to anchor attribution or pricing. Collectors should treat any offered work with particular caution given the absence of a confirmed sales record, a gallery, or an estate representative to consult, and should rely on the museums that hold documented examples of his work, and on published biographical sources, as the starting point for provenance research.