Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Su Hanchen
Kaifeng academy painter who served Huizong and the Southern Song court and is best known for paintings of children at play
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.
Su Hanchen came from Kaifeng and served as a painter-in-attendance in Emperor Huizong's academy in the Xuanhe era. A follower of Liu Zonggu, he painted Buddhist and Daoist figures but was best known for scenes of children at play. After the fall of Kaifeng he moved south to Lin'an and rejoined the academy in the Shaoxing era, and early in the Longxing era Emperor Xiaozong gave him the rank of chengxin lang for a Buddhist painting that pleased him. Children Playing in an Autumn Garden, a hanging scroll in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, shows a sister and brother playing a game with jujubes among garden rocks and hibiscus, and is one of the best-known Song paintings of children.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active from the Xuanhe era of Northern Song to the Longxing era of Southern Song (c. 1119–1163)