When word got out that "girls were taking off their panties" at the school, Liu replied that just as medical students need courses in anatomy so artists need to study sketching from the nude.
對於市井流傳，中華美術專科學校內「有脫褲子的大姑娘」供人欣賞的傳言，劉海粟則以「醫學少不瞭解剖，相同的道理，美術也少不了寫生」為回應。