Liu Haisu was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. He started to study traditional Chinese painting at the age of five. In the 1920s and 1930s he repeatedly visited Europe, where he lectured on Chinese art, held exhibitions and also became a mentor to Chinese art students. At the age of eighteen he founded the Shanghai Fine Arts Institute and became its president only three years later. He was the first to introduce nude models in studio classes and along with Xu Beihong he became the father of modern Chinese painting. During the Cultural Revolution he was branded a rightist and was not rehabilitated until 1978.

Liu Haisu mastered both western-style oil painting as well as traditional Chinese painting. His works have been exhibited in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe, and he has been honoured by many art associations from Italy, England and the United States