Dai Benxiao

Author: Dai Benxiao (painting)/Xu Hongquan (editing)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: Dai Benxiao (1621-1693), a Qing Dynasty painter, styled Wuzhan, styled Eagle-Arbor Mountain Hermit, also styled Yellow Water Lake Fisherman, Taihua Stone Room Old Man, etc. He was from Hezhou (now He County, Anhui Province). He enjoyed socializing and was friendly with painters and poets such as Zhan Jiang, Gong Xian, and Shi Tao. He excelled in painting landscapes, advocating for learning from the ancients without being rigidly bound by their methods, emphasizing the need to "take heaven and earth as the true source" and "use my own methods." His works were mostly small scenes in scrolls and albums, with styles inspired by Ni Zan, Wang Meng, and Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty while innovating on his own. He skillfully used dry brush and dark ink, with sparse and elegant compositions, remote and desolate artistic conception, and often expressed his secluded and solitary mood, as well as his sense of the vicissitudes of society, through landscapes. Art history has classified him as part of the early Qing Xian'an School. He was also skilled in calligraphy and poetry, authoring works such as Early Life Poems and Later Life Poems. This introduction covers his life, travels, relationships, the mindset of a refugee, his artistic thoughts and the evolution of his style, among other aspects. It also reviews his poetry and its influence. Additionally, a concise chronology is provided, along with a list of his major surviving works.