Fan Kuan
(990 - 1030) |
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Landscape Art Work
| Name: |
Fan Kuan |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Hua Xian, China |
| Nationality: |
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| Birth: |
990 |
| Death: |
1030 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Landscape |
| Medium: |
color on silk |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Fan Kuan was a leading artist of what is known as the Northern School of Chinese landscape painting. Many details of his life have been lost in history as, sadly, have most of his works, and several paintings attributed to him cannot be proven, but his fame as one of the greats of the Northern School remains undiminished. Around the time of his birth, the chaotic upheavals of the Five Dynasties era (907-960) ended. Emperor Taizu of Song reunified China and, although the ensuing Song Dynasty (960-1279) could not match the golden age of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it was, nevertheless, a period of tremendous progress, invention, and cultural richness. One of the chief glories of the Song Dynasty, the Northern School worked principally in the Chinese heartlands north of the Yellow River. Mostartists were influenced by native Taoism, but the reclusive Kuan spent much of his life wandering the mountains and river valleys of Shanxi province. Kuan's most famous painting (definitely attributed to him) is Travelers Among Mountains and Streams (c.1010). At nearly 7 feet (2 m) high it fully justifies its central place in the "master mountain" genre of the monumental landscape tradition. From the tiny figures and exquisitely rendered trees of the foreground, Kuan's composition engulfs the viewer and takes the eye through shifting perspectives, past rocky escarpments, and cascades toward the towering bulk of the central peak. An ethereal misty chasm at the mountain's base contributes to the illusion of immense scale and extreme depth, a powerful statement of the Taoist concept of q/–the spirit energy infusing and connecting all things. Kuan anticipated ideas that would only begin to be openly explored in Western art many centuries later. |
Samples of Work
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