The Painter from Shanghai

Pan Yuliang - one-time prostitute, postimpressionist, and adopted Parisian - lived at the intersection of great art and tumultuous modern history. In the painter from Shanghai, Jennifer Cody Epstein reimagines the life of this bold and improbable woman.
Down the muddy waters of the Yangtze River and into the seedy backrooms of "The Hall of Eternal Splendor," through the raucous glamour of prewar Shanghai and the bohemian splendor of 1920s Paris, and back to a China ripped apart by civil war and teetering on the brink of revolution, this novel fells the story of Pan Yuliang, one of the most talented - and provocative - Chinese artists of the twentieth century.
Jennifer Cody Epstein conjures the world of the woman behind the Cezannesque nude self-portraits, imagining with lavish detail her life in the brothel and then as a concubine to the Republican official who would ultimately help her find her way as an artist. Moving with the tide of historical events, The Painter from Shanghai celebrates a singular daring painting style - one that led to fame, notoriety, and, ultimately, a devastating choice: between Pan's art and the one great love of her life.