He Pinghua In 19th century, unlike Beijing which was the capital of Qing Dynasty, and Guangzhou which was the first opening market to the West, Shanghai wasaffected by two mainstreams in arts. Before 1840, artists in Shanghai still kept on their traditional painting philosophy and activities, including organizingsome communities. But from 1840, they gradually and unawarely shifted their direction to meet the needs of commerce, which was imported from theWest. The moods of the artists were complicated and even confused, and formed a special evidence in arts, which was called Shanghai Painting School. On the other hand, as an important branch of traditional Chinese painting since it was born, Shanghai Painting School has kept its tradition of Chinesepainting with a self-controled system, which never broke off the heritage of Chinese painting, and never wiped out or replaced the constant paintingproperty.
