Self-Portrait

Inscribed: Painted in 1978 at the London Studio. Inscribed by Fang Zhaoling in 1985.

With a minimum of brushstrokes, Fang Zhaoling created an interesting psychological study in this self-portrait. The painting was done in 1978, when she was sixty-four and was living in London. As her confident use of the brush reveals, she was still a robust artist.

Moreover, she was not shy in commenting on the challenges of life as a single parent of eight children. She made statements on this subject in a number of ways: sometimes in her inscriptions, sometimes in her choice of subject matter, and often in an unconventional manner—in her seals. Fang used a great many seals during her life; she created many of them for a specific year, time, or event. One seal on this painting reads "Will I ever have a day of leisure in my life?"