Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Yi Yuanji
Northern Song painter from Changsha known for gibbons, deer and birds, who died in the middle of an imperial commission for a Hundred Gibbons mural
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 Qingzhi
Yi Yuanji, courtesy name Qingzhi, came from Changsha in modern Hunan. He began as a painter of flowers and birds, but after seeing the work of Zhao Chang he resolved to find his own subjects, spending months in the hills of Hunan and Hubei watching gibbons and deer and keeping animals by a pond at his home to draw from life. Guo Ruoxu's Experiences in Painting records that in 1064, when the Xiaoyan Hall was built at the Jingling Palace, he was summoned to paint its imperial screen and then ordered to paint a Hundred Gibbons on the west gallery of the Kaixian Hall, but he fell ill and died after finishing only ten or so. Monkey and Cats, a handscroll in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is attributed to him.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; summoned to paint for the court in 1064 and died soon after