Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ren Renfa
Yuan hydraulic official from Qinglong in Songjiang who dredged the Wusong River and painted horses and figures
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 Ziming · Hao Yueshan Daoren
Ren Renfa, courtesy name Ziming and art name Yueshan Daoren, came from Qinglong in Songjiang, now Qingpu in Shanghai. He passed the provincial examination under the Song in 1267 and under the Yuan served as deputy commissioner for waterways and deputy pacification commissioner of eastern Zhejiang, directing work on the Wusong River, the Tonghui River, the Huitong Canal and Lian Lake; in 1324 he built six sluice gates on the Wusong, and he wrote a ten-chapter Collection on Water Control. He painted horses, figures and birds and flowers. The Palace Museum in Beijing holds his Two Horses, which sets a fat horse against a lean one as an allegory of greedy and honest officials, and Zhang Guo Meeting Emperor Minghuang.
Life and times
Dates 1254 CE–1327 CE