Born in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province, the 69-year-old is one of China's best-known artists. His paintings are frequently seen in art textbooks.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"Britain is the home of watercolor and China has been learning from it for nearly 100 years. This exhibition is an opportunity for me to know what British people would feel about this particular painting style and also to learn more from British watercolorists," he said.

Nick Tidnam, president of the Royal Society of British Artists, attended the opening.

"It's a great show from a great man with enormous talent, skill and understanding of nature and life and you get great joy from his paintings," he said. "It's great for cultural relationships between the UK and China and absolutely what we should be doing. Culture is very important. Mr Feng and myself, we don't have a common language, but we do have a common language of painting, so we understand each other in that respect. I think music, art, these are things which we cross borders and relate to each other."

The last major Chinese painter to have an exhibition at the British Museum was Wu Guanzhong, in 1992.

Zhang Yangfei in London contributed to this story.