Nantong in Jiangsu province is known as a historic and prosperous city with a booming cultural scene in modern China. It's the birthplace of China's first normal school, first private-run museum and first weather station, to name a few.

Nantong also contributes to the development of Chinese art by producing generations of career artists.

The Study Exhibition of Nantong Phenomenon in Chinese Fine Arts of the 20th Century, an exhibition now on at Nantong Museum through Jan 7, 2020, shows more than 120 works by 65 painters native to the city.

The museum was founded in 1905 by Zhang Jian, an entrepreneur, educator and politician born in Nantong, and the museum is considered as China's first museum to open to the public.

On show are oil paintings, classic Chinese paintings, lithographs and calligraphic pieces to show the diversity in creation of Nantong's art scene.

The exhibition toured Beijing and Nanjing earlier.