CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 31 



his coloristic efforts. His paintings had a chrysochlorous shine about them . 

 This was his specialty and was much imitated by later masters. It was on 

 this account that he was looked upon as having furnished the pattern for 

 landscape work as far as colors are concerned. His originality in the color- 

 ing of his pictures has caused later art historians to described him as the 

 founder of a school. Friedrich Hirih. 



WANG WEI. T'ang Dynasty. Seventh Century. 



We now come to Wang Wei, the great poet, known to the Japanese as 

 O-i, who was almost equally famous as a painter. It was, indeed, said by 

 Su Tung-p'o that "his poems were pictures, and his pictiu^es poems." 



Bom in 699, he entered into public life, and rose to high office. He was 

 carried off by the great rebel of the day; and on the latter 's death he had 

 some trouble to save himself from the executioner. He finally retired to 

 a coimtry house, and ended his days at the age of 60 in the enjoyment 

 of such pleasures as may be derived from poetry, painting, and music, 

 and with such consolations as maybe afforded by the Buddhist religion, 

 in which he had always been a firm believer. We are told that "his pic- 

 tures were full of thought, and rivaled even nature herself"; also that 

 "his ideas transcended the bounds of mortality." He is chiefly remem- 

 bered as a landscape painter, but his portraits are said to have been 

 fine performances. Herbert A . Giles. 



YEN W^N-KUEI. Sung Dynasty, Eleventh Century. 



Yen Wen-kuei was a landscape painter, who went to the capital seeking 

 his fortune, and sold his pictures in the streets. Some of these were seen 

 by Kao I, when already enjoying the Imperial favor, and he brought them 

 to the notice of the Emperor, with a request that the artist might be 

 employed to assist him by painting the trees and rocks in the great frescos 

 upon which he was engaged. Yen was accordingly sent for, and was 

 commanded by the Emperor to paint "his minister's portrait, "in obvious 

 allusion to Kao I. However, when Yen handed up his work, it turned 

 out to be a white silk fan, on which he had painted a portrait of himself; 

 and luckily for him, the Emperor was a man who could appreciate a joke 

 as well as a painting. 



"There was preserved in the Kao family a sea picture by Yen Wen- 

 kuei, not a foot square in size. The ships were like leaves, and the sailors 

 like grains of barley; nevertheless the spars, sails, and sweeps, the point- 

 ing, shouting, and hturied movements of the crew, were all fully delineated; 

 while the fiuy of wind and wave, the neighboring isles and islets, with 

 monsters of the deep now and again rising into view — a thousand li in a 

 foot of space — produced indeed a wonderful effect." 



One critic says, "Yen did not model his style upon that of any old 

 master, but originated a style of his own. His scenery in all its changing 

 variety was so lovely that spectators fancied themselves at the very spots. 



