Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Li Gonglin
Northern Song scholar-official and painter who retired to Longmian Mountain and became the master of plain-line drawing of figures and horses
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 Boshi · Hao Longmian Jushi
Li Gonglin, courtesy name Boshi, came from Shuzhou in present-day Anhui. The History of Song says that after passing the jinshi examination he served as a county sheriff and as recorder in Sizhou, was recommended by Lu Dian for an editorial post in the Secretariat-Chancellery, and later worked as a law examiner for the Censorate; in 1100 rheumatic illness forced him to retire to Longmian Mountain, from which he took the name Longmian Jushi. A learned antiquarian, he painted figures, horses and Buddhist images, often in plain ink line without colour. Surviving works include Five Horses (Tokyo National Museum) and his copy of Wei Yan's Herding Horses (Palace Museum, Beijing); Beauties on an Outing in Taipei is traditionally attributed to him.
Life and times
Dates c. 1049 CE–1106 CE