Lot Essay
Born in Amoy (Xiamen), Chiu attended the Anglo-Chinese College of the London Missionary Society in Tianjin. He arrived in the United States in 1920 to study history and archeology at Harvard, but found himself more interested in art. Therefore, he enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he studied for two years. In 1923, he continued his studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, and then at the Royal Academy School in London under Sir George Clauen and Charles Sims. In 1925, he was selected as member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Chiu Tenghiok was the only foreign artist to be awarded the Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1929. He returned to China in 1930 and stayed in Beijing for two years. Later, he worked in Spain and Southern France, and travelled through Morocco and Eastern Europe from 1935 to 1937 before returning to the United States in 1938. Chiu's works are in the collections of the Carnegie Institute, the Pittsburgh Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and many private collections.