Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zhao Gan
Southern Tang academy student from Nanjing who painted the handscroll Early Snow on the River
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 Zhao Gan (simplified writing)
Zhao Gan, also written with the simplified character, came from Jiangning, today's Nanjing, and was a student in the painting academy of the Southern Tang under its last ruler, Li Yu. He painted landscapes, trees and figures, mostly the rivers and lakes of the south under broad, misty light. The Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings notes that everything he painted was southern scenery. His handscroll Early Snow on the River, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, opens with the inscription naming him as an academy student and shows fishermen and travellers at work along a wintry shore in the first snow.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active under the last Southern Tang ruler (961-975)