Abstract: From 1880 to 1912, Liu Dezhai served as director of the Shanghai Tou-sè-wè Art Workshop for thirty-two years, leading it to its most brilliant period. An important educator of early Chinese watercolor, he left behind a body of work that was almost entirely lost or scattered. He inherited Western teaching methods, introduced Pierre Vignal’s watercolors, trained Xu Yongqing, and, through contacts with Shanghai-school painters, integrated Western sketching into traditional Chinese painting. Although his watercolors are lost, his contributions to Western art education and the dissemination of watercolor are significant. As a key figure in the rise of Chinese watercolor education, he left a pedagogical legacy and cross-cultural influence that had a lasting and profound impact on Chinese watercolor.
Keywords: Liu Dezhai; Tou-sè-wè Art Workshop; watercolor education
