Works selected from the Northern Song Dynasty master Guo Xi

Author: Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Guo Xi, a distinguished painter of the Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Chunfu. He was from Wen County, Heyang (now Meng County, Henan). He was known as "Guo Heyang" in the world. Born with extraordinary talent, he was exceptionally gifted. During the Xining era, he served as an artist in the Imperial Painting Academy and rose to the position of Hanlin Dazhi. He excelled in landscape painting. In his early years, his works were meticulous and refined, but later, he studied under Li Cheng and devoted himself to imitating his style, delving deeply into the essence of painting. Over time, he developed his own unique style. His paintings of cold forests conveyed profound meaning, and his large scrolls and high walls depicted towering pines and giant trees, skillfully capturing the emergence and disappearance of clouds and mist, as well as the hidden and visible peaks and ridges. Both in composition and brushwork, his works were regarded as unparalleled of his time. Su Dongpo once wrote a poem: "Facing Guo Xi's paintings in the Jade Hall, I felt the inspiration of the green forests." Li Cheng and Guo Xi were able to blend ink and color seamlessly, and the painters in the academy eagerly studied their techniques. He often discussed the art of painting mountains, saying: "Spring mountains are light and smiling, summer mountains are verdant and dripping, autumn mountains are clear and adorned, and winter mountains are somber and sleeping." He frequently traveled to famous mountains and rivers to sketch from life. He was skilled in creating ghost-faced rocks, chaotic cloud textures, eagle-claw pine needles, and mixed leaves. He advocated that painting should be connected to real life, opposing the ethereal and unrealistic landscapes of "uninhabitable" and "unwanderable" mountains, and rejecting "imitation and adherence to tradition." Instead, he "comprehensive learning" while also learning from nature. His works include: "Early Spring," "Visiting Friends in Spring Mountains," "Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains," "Spring Snow on Pass and Mountains," "Secluded Valley," "Stream and Mountains in Autumn Mist," etc. He wrote "Linquan Gaozhi," summarizing the experience of traditional painting. He created the "Three Distances" method—high distance, flat distance, and deep distance—laying the foundation for the scattered perspective in Chinese landscape painting.