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

Fang Rending was born in Zhongshan County in Guangdong province. He studied painting from Gao Jianfu (1879-1951) in the Chunshui Art Studio and later in Japan from 1929 to 1935. Fang was among the few Lingnan School artists who excelled at figure paintings and was a pivotal leader in reforming traditional Chinese figure painting.

Fang was greatly affected by the hardship of life for ordinary people in early 20th century China, and he devoted much energy depicting labouring people with rich realistic detail. His style and subjects therefore adapted easily to the romantic realism of Communist China after 1949.

This painting depicts a group of women sharpening agricultural tools in a peaceful pastoral scene. The power and importance of women in production activity was greatly advocated and praised during the revolutionary period. The red headwear and shoes in this painting, together with the metal agricultural tools, have brought a heroic and revolutionary appearance instead of an elegant and delicate image to these women.