Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Bird on a branchfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Bird on a branch

  • Description

    Ren Yi (1840-1895) was the most successful and influential of the 'Four Rens', four artists with the surname Ren in the Shanghai school. He was born into a family who did portrait painting for a living, and therefore managed to build up a firm foundation of painting techniques when he was a child. Ren Yi roamed the Lake Tai area during his twenties and learned painting from famous artists such as Ren Xiong (1820-1857), Ren Xun (1835-1893), and Wu Changshuo (1844-1927). In 1863, Ren Yi moved to Shanghai, where he became a very well received artist. Ren Yi's early flower-and-bird paintings are characterised by the gongbi fine brush style. After 1880, he turned to a more succinct and powerful style after Zhu Da (Bada Shanren) (c.1626-1705). This painting, dated to 1886, demonstrates this transition in his style - the bird was finished with ink in different tones and only slight colour.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › China › Shanghai province (place of creation)
    Date
    1886
    Artist/maker
    Ren Yi (1840 - 1895) (artist)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 40.4 x 55.3 cm (height x width)
    painting 26.2 x 32.5 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    covered › coated › painted,
    marked › painted,
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    drawn (image) › line drawing › brush drawing
    Object type index
    visual representation › album,
    visual representation › painting
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Bequeathed by Mrs Isabella Cohn, 1972.
    Accession no.
    EA1972.25

  • Further reading

    Vainker, Shelagh, Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2000), no. 116 on p. 132, illus. p. 133 fig. 116

Location

    • Second floor | Room 38 | China from 800

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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  • Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Shelagh Vainker

    Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

    Ren Yi was from Shanyin, present-day Shaoxing in Zhejiang province, the son of a portraitist. In the winter of 1868 he moved to Shanghai, where he lived for the rest of his life. Shanghai was a rapidly growing commercial centre at that time, and artists from all over China went there to sell their paintings. There emerged a 'Shanghai School' of painting, associated with a synthesis of popular and traditional style, in which Ren Yi is regarded as the leading figure. He is known for his bold brushwork and use of colour, particularly in figure and bird-and-flower paintings. The latter were mostly in Song style until he came across an album by the early Qing individualist painter Zhu Da (Ba da shan ren), by whose looser style he was influenced. He was more closely a successor to the Shanghai based painters Ren Xiong (1823-57) and Ren Xun (1834-93).

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum