Dai Siwang · Xiang Kui Fine Collection

Author: (Qing) Zhang Xun
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Xiang Kui, a native of Xiushui (now Jiaxing, Zhejiang). A descendant of the minor official Wei Mo. A Xiangsheng (local scholar). Known for his landscape paintings executed with a bald brush, and skilled in orchids and bamboos. His brushwork is elegant and refined, capturing the dry and sparse charm of the Yuan dynasty artists. At the age of seventy, he commissioned a friend to write his epitaph for his tomb, living until eighty. In the 17th year of the Qianlong reign (1752), he created a colored landscape album. He authored the Wan Guan Tang Collection. Dai Siwang, [Qing], styled Huaiyu, was a native of Xiuyin, Anhui. Skilled in the lute, adept at poetry and calligraphy. His landscape paintings followed the Yuan dynasty masters, with peaks and valleys, forests and gorges, exquisitely sparse and free-spirited. He often traveled in a small boat between Zhejiang and the Sanwu region, staying wherever he encountered beautiful landscapes. His brushwork was harmonious, and sometimes he would remain silent for days, which people thought strange. He died of pneumonia.