Yuan made dozens of sketches along the way, which formed the basis for the completed A Thousand Li View of the Yangtze River a year later. Then came the shocking news that the painting had failed the final assessment amid the chaos of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). The landscape was severely criticized for "not meeting the standard of hailing workers, farmers and soldiers".

It was not until years later when Yuan was involved in the Beijing Capital International Airport's interior decoration project that he had the opportunity to revive A Thousand Li View of the Yangtze River, recreating the painting's Chongqing section.

As well as those of Yuan's paintings that became public artworks, the exhibition at the Tsinghua University Art Museum also shows a group of gouache landscapes, created during the 1960s and '70s, in which Yuan focuses on the peaceful pace of cities, towns and the countryside, presenting the unnoticed beauty of ordinary places, such as a pig market, a sand plant and a fishing village.

Liu Jude, a close friend and colleague of Yuan Yunfu at Tsinghua, says the gouache paintings show how he mastered the medium, as well as showcasing his great sense of color.

"They were produced at a time when he had very few chances to exhibit his work, let alone to sell it," Liu says. "He painted not for fame or money, but simply for pleasure.