Human figures are absent in the landscapes…
1374 CE
Human figures are absent in the landscapes of hermit painter Ni Zan, their spare composition reflecting the artist’s quiet, reclusive personality.
His paintings, executed in ink monochrome, display the calm, detached quality exemplified in his 1372 masterpiece, Rongxi (“Studio”).
Ni Zan had traveled around southern China during the fall of the Yuan and spent his time painting.
His work is highly valued and it itself is enough to pay for the hospitality provided by his friends as he travels.
Having returned to his hometown, Wuxi, after the establishment of the Ming dynasty, he dies here on December 4, 1374.
Art historians consider him, together with Wang Meng and the hermit painters Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, one of the Four Great Masters of the Yüan dynasty.