Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ren Yi
Late Qing painter from Shanyin who sold his work in Shanghai and was a leading figure, bird-and-flower and portrait painter of the Shanghai school
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 Bonian · Hao Ciyuan · Ren Bonian
Ren Yi, first named Run, took the courtesy name Bonian, by which he is generally known, and came from Shanyin, present-day Shaoxing; he signed many works 'Ren Yi of Shanyin'. After training with Ren Xiong and Ren Xun he spent most of his career in Shanghai earning his living from painting, at home in figures, birds and flowers, landscape and portraiture, and with Xugu and Wu Changshuo he stands for the Shanghai school. His surviving works include the twelve-panel Immortals Celebrating a Birthday in the Shanghai Museum and Su Wu Herding Sheep (1894) in the Palace Museum in Beijing. He died in Shanghai on 19 December 1895.
Life and times
Dates 1840 CE–1895 CE