Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Li Song
Former carpenter adopted by the court painter Li Congxun who served three Southern Song emperors as an academy painter of figures, street life and architecture
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 Li Song of the Southern Song
Li Song was a poor boy from Hangzhou who worked as a carpenter until the academy painter Li Congxun adopted him and taught him to paint. The Precious Mirror of Painting says he served as a painter-in-attendance under emperors Guangzong, Ningzong and Lizong, painting figures and Buddhist and Daoist subjects and excelling at ruled-line architecture. His genre scenes of city life include the Knick-knack Peddler pictures in Taipei and in the Palace Museum, Beijing, crowded with the pedlar's wares and the women and children around him; the Palace Museum also holds his Skeleton Puppet Show and a long scroll of the Qiantang tidal bore.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active c. 1190–1230 under emperors Guangzong to Lizong