Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Khoan Sullivan (born 1919-2003 as Wu Baohuan or Wu Huan) was the wife of Michael Sullivan (1916-2013) and a great supporter of his career in Chinese art history. Khoan and Michael met in 1941 in west China, where she used to work for the International Red Cross and the Northwest Epidemic Prevention Bureau as a bacteriologist. After they were married, Khoan gave up her job and assisted Michael with his research for the rest of her life.

This portrait of Khoan was painted in 1959 when Michael was lecturing at the University of Malaya (now University of Singapore). The artist, Zhong Sibin (1917-1983) was a native of Xiamen on China’s southeast coast. He was trained in the Xiamen Art Academy and the Shanghai Xinhua Art Academy. In 1946 he settled in Singapore and taught in the Nanyang Academy of Art. Zhong painted this portrait on a day when Khoan and Michael visited him. Khoan was sitting holding a fan and chatting with him when he told her to keep still, then putting a piece of paper on his easel he rapidly drew the figure in outline. The colour and inscription were added later. The inscription reads ‘For the amusement of Mrs Sullivan, Wu Huan.’