Yen Shui-long (; 5 June 1903 – 24 September 1997) was a Taiwanese painter and sculptor, was born in Ensuikō Chō, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Xiaying, Tainan, Taiwan). Early life By the he was thirteen, both of Yen's parents, as well as his grandmother, had died. His older sister had married, so Yen had to take care of himself. After completing two years of training at the Tainan Teachers’ Training School (台南州教員養成所) in 1918, Yen was hired as the youngest schoolteacher at the public elementary school in present-day Xiaying District. A fellow teacher convinced Yen to pursue art in Japan, and he subsequently enrolled in the Kaei Public School (Kaei Kōgakkō). He went to Japan in 1920, and was admitted into the Western Painting Division of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts two years later. By 1927, he entered graduate school at the same institute to study under Fujishima Takeji, Okada Saburousuke, and Wada Eisaku. He returned to Taiwan in 1929 and held a solo exhibition to raise funds for further studies in Paris. Yen's further education in art was partly funded by Lin Hsien-tang. By introduction, he studied under Kees van Dongen at the Académie d’Art Moderne. While studying in France, he applied for permission from the Louvre to copy famous works by artists such as Titian and Ingres, and his work was selected into the Salon d’Automne in 1931. Work and Public Life However, he became afflicted with hepatitis as a result of overwork and poor nutrition. In order to recover, he returned to Taiwan in October 1932. In 1934, he and other artists, such as Tan Ting-pho, founded the Tai-Yang Art Society (臺陽美術協會). Starting in 1936, Yen devoted himself to the promotion of arts and crafts. In 1941, he and other artists, including Zhang Wanchuan (張萬傳) and Chen Dewang (陳德旺), founded the Taiwan Plastic Arts Society (台灣造形美術協會). He also devoted himself to the pursuit of art and craft skills, such as straw basket weaving and bamboo-processing work. Over the course of his life, he taught at Taiwan Provincial Tainan Junior College of Technology (台南工業專門學校; today’s National Cheng Kung University), National Taiwan Academy of Arts (today’s National Taiwan University of Arts), Private Tainan School of Home Economics, and Shih Chien School of Home Economics (today’s Shih Chien University). In addition, he also wrote the book Taiwan’s Arts and Crafts (1952). Although his focus shifted to arts and crafts, Yen