Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Gao Kegong
Yuan official of Central Asian descent who rose to Minister of Justice and painted misty landscapes in the manner of Mi Fu and Mi Youren
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 Yanjing · Hao Fangshan
Gao Kegong, courtesy name Yanjing, styled Fangshan, came from a family of Central Asian (semu) origin registered at Datong; his father moved the household to Yanjing, the later Beijing. He began as a clerk in the Ministry of Works and served as a censor, as a director in the Jiangzhe provincial secretariat and in the southern branch censorate, rising at last to Minister of Justice. In painting he first followed the cloudy landscapes of Mi Fu and Mi Youren, later drew on Dong Yuan and Juran, and also painted ink bamboo; he was a close friend of Zhao Mengfu. His hanging scroll Clouds Across Green Peaks is in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and Zhao Mengfu inscribed a poem on his Ink Bamboo and Rock. He died in 1310 at sixty-three.
Life and times
Dates 1248 CE-1310 CE