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Acknowledgments
This has been a long-term, engrossing, and quite possibly far too ambitious project. That it succeeds to any extent is largely due to the people who have helped and supported it along the way, who include (but are certainly not limited to) Alan Ziegler and the Columbia School of the Arts Writing Division, for support and encouragement and for understanding the limits on a writing mother’s time and finances; Helen Schulman, for helping me find my way early on; Binnie Kirshenbaum and Mary Gordon, for holding my feet to the fire and keeping me walking. Jeesoon Hong, Kailin Huang, Yeewan Koon, and Wei Zhong have all provided essential researching, translating, and proofreading help on the Chinese side of things, while Andrea LaFleur, Julia Lichtblau, Denis Bonnet, and Hillary Jordan have been equally helpful with the French. Tim Brewer and Erica Hope Charpentier suffered through my woeful attempts in the oil painting world. I’m indebted to Kuiyi Shen at the University of California, San Diego, who curated the exhibit that first brought Pan Yuliang’s work to my attention. Borhua Wang at the Pratt Institute also provided early thought and insight into Pan’s work, and Madeleine Zelin, of Columbia University’s East Asian Languages and Culture Department, pointed the way for reading, classwork, and further consultants. Suzette Cody traipsed tirelessly through Singapore, seeking out Pan
Yuliang paintings; Tom Cody trolled the back streets of Shanghai for clues into Pan’s life and formative influences. Liang Luo of the University of Michigan, Antonia Finnane of the University of Melbourne, and Anik Fournier of the Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art were all generous in sharing research, images and thoughts. I owe the Art Students League of New York – particularly Frank Mason and his talented class – great thanks for allowing me to intrude on their world for a day. Thanks, too, to the Art Retreat Museum in Singapore and to Sotheby’s for access to and information on Pan Yuliang’s amazing paintings
Between workshop colleagues and literature-loving friends, there are scores of people who have critiqued this novel for me as it’s grown. I am especially grateful to Alison Bogert, Halle Eaton, Michael Epstein, Joanna Hershon, Hillary Jordan, Amy Sirot, Ellen Umansky, Josh Weil, and Michelle Wildgen for taking extra time to read, reread, and advise. My fabulous agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman, cheered me on at a courageously early point in this venture, and editors Jill Bialosky at Norton and Mary Mount at Viking UK made for an unstoppable duo; it has been a privilege to work with them. Copyeditor Liz Duvall made more life-saving catches than I can count. I’d also like to thank those who offered their homes, offices, and quiet spaces as my own little apartment filled with toys, joys, and tantrums; Marcy Lovitch, Susan Chaddick, and Andrea Reiff were especially generous.
Finally, and most importantly, my husband, Michael, deserves (even if he doesn’t always receive) undying gratitude for spotting a good idea, daring me to try it, and
offering truly heroic support, honest feedback, and continued marriage to me while I did. You are the Fire Horse of my soul. My daughters, Katie and Hannah – Dragon and Monkey, respectively – have been an endless (if sleepless) source of inspiration, mirth, and wonder. This, as everything, is for you all.
Permissions
The author is grateful for permission to quote from the following material:
Martin Bernal,
Chinese Socialism to 1907
. Copyright © 1975 by Martin Bernal. Published by Cornell University Press. Used with permission of the author.
Robert Henri,
The Art Spirit
. Copyright © 1923 by J. P. Lippincott Company. Copyright renewed 1951 by Violet Organ. Reprinted by permission of the Perseus Books Group.
Gail Hershatter,
Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai
. Copyright © 1997 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted with the permission of The University of California Press.
Ho Xuan Huong, ‘The Floating Cake’ and ‘The Lustful Monk,’ translated by John Balaban, from
Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong
. Copyright © 2000 by John Balaban. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press,
www.copper-canyonpress.org
Li Po, ‘At Ching-Men Ferry,’ ‘Avoiding Farewell in a Chin-Ling Wineshop,’ ‘Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon: Part 3,’ and ‘Night Thoughts at Tung-Lin Monastery on Lu Mountain,’
translated by David Hinton, from
The Selected Poems of Li Po
, copyright © 1996 by David Hinton. Reprinted by permission of the New Directions Publishing Corp.
John Sloan, ‘The Gist of Art.’ Copyright © 1977. Reprinted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc.
Michael Sullivan,
Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China
. Copyright © 1996 by Michael Sullivan. Reprinted by permission of The University of California Press.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: The Atelier
Montparnasse, 1957
PART TWO: The Journey
1. Zhenjiang, 1913
2
3
PART THREE: The Hall
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
PART FOUR: The Concubine
14. Wuhu, 1916
15
16
PART FIVE: The House
17. Shanghai, 1916
18
19
20
21
22
23
PART SIX: The Academy
24
25
26
27
28
PART SEVEN: L’École
29. France, 1923
30
31. Paris, 1925
32
33
34
PART EIGHT: The Wives
35. Nanjing, 1936
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
PART NINE: The Departure
45