Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ma Lin
Southern Song court painter and son of Ma Yuan, attendant at the painting academy from the Jiatai era, known for Listening to the Wind in the Pines
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 Ma Lin of the Southern Song
Ma Lin came from a family originally of Hezhong in Shanxi that settled in Hangzhou after the court moved south, and he was the son of the court painter Ma Yuan. The Precious Mirror of Painting says he became an attendant at the painting academy in the Jiatai era under Emperor Ningzong and carried on the family manner in figures, landscapes and flowers; many of his pictures bear inscriptions by Ningzong, Empress Yang or Emperor Lizong. His surviving works include Listening to the Wind in the Pines (National Palace Museum, Taipei), Layers of Icy Silk (Palace Museum, Beijing), Sunset Landscape (Nezu Museum, Tokyo) and the album leaf Night Outing with Candles.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active under the Southern Song emperors Ningzong and Lizong