Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ma Yuan
Southern Song court painter from a family of academy artists whose corner compositions earned him the name One-Corner Ma; one of the Four Masters of the Southern Song
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Zi Yaofu · Hao Qinshan · Ma Yijiao
Ma Yuan, courtesy name Yaofu, sobriquet Qinshan, had family roots in Hezhong and lived in Qiantang, the fourth generation of a family of court painters that included his great-grandfather Ma Ben, grandfather Ma Xingzu and father Ma Shirong. He served as a painter-in-attendance at the academy under Emperors Guangzong and Ningzong, painting landscapes, figures and birds and flowers. His landscapes often gather the scene into one corner, with axe-cut strokes on nearby cliffs and wide empty space beyond, which earned him the name One-Corner Ma. *Stepping Song* (*Tage tu*), inscribed with a poem by Emperor Ningzong, shows villagers singing on their way, and the twelve-section *Water* scroll, several sections titled by Empress Yang, studies different kinds of waves; both are in the Palace Museum in Beijing. From the Ming on he was grouped with Li Tang, Liu Songnian and Xia Gui as the Four Masters of the Southern Song, and the Zhe school painters of the Ming followed his manner.
Life and times
Dates c. 1160 CE–c. 1225 CE