Born in Tainan, Taiwan. Yen graduated from Tokyo Fine Arts School. In 1929, he left for French to study painting and followed van Dongen. Yen's work was selected in the Autumn Salon. After his return to Taiwan, he participated in several important exhibitions, such as Taiwan Exhibition, Taiwan Provincial Exhibition and Taiyang Fine Arts Exhibition and won several awards. At the same time, he served as an adjudicator. In 1941, Yen organized Taiwan Fine Arts Association with fellow artists Chang Wan-chuan, Chen Te-wan. His 80-year and 90-year retrospectives were held successively by National Museum of History in 1982 and in 1991. Yen's oil paintings have excellent textures. The subject matters were aborigines' portraits, fishing boats of Orchid Island, landscapes, still lifes, vase of flowers and figure portraits. Yen devoted his time and effort extensively to the development of Taiwanese commercial and craft arts.