Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Xu Daoning
Northern Song landscape painter from Chang'an who began by giving away pictures to sell medicine in Kaifeng and developed Li Cheng's manner into his own
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 Drunken Xu
Xu Daoning came from Chang'an, today's Xi'an, or by another account from Hejian. The Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings says he started out selling medicine in the capital Kaifeng, painting wintry forests and level distances to draw customers, until his pictures became sought after. Guo Ruoxu writes that he learned from Li Cheng and in old age painted quickly and sparely, with sheer peaks and stiff trees, creating a manner of his own; the statesman Zhang Shixun wrote that with Li Cheng and Fan Kuan gone, only Xu Daoning of Chang'an remained. Fishermen's Evening Song (also called Fishing Boats on an Autumn River) in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is generally regarded as his masterpiece.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the early to mid Northern Song (first half of the 11th century)