32 THENATIONALGALLERYOFART 



and his painting created a form of landscape known as 'scenery of the 

 Yen school . * " 



Another critic adds the following to some remarks in a similar strain: 

 "The minuteness and the clearness of his detail were delightful, but he 

 was lacking in anatomical strength." No dates are forthcoming beyond a 

 mention of work done by him in 1008. Herbert A. Giles. 



FAN K'UAN. Sung Dynasty. 



Fan K'uan was really named Fan Chung-cheng; but because of his 

 kindly, liberal-minded disposition, he was called Fan K'uan, which means 

 Fan the Broad. No dates are given, except that he was said to be "still 

 alive" about A. D. 1026. 



"He loved wine, was rather wanting in energy, and unconventional; 

 consequently he spent much of his time between the capital (Pien-liang) 

 and Lo-yang (the old capital). He was fond of painting landscape, and 

 began by modeling his style upon that of Li Ch'eng; but by and by his 

 eyes were opened, and he said with a sigh, ' The method of m^'^ predecessors 

 has not been to get into intimate relationship with things. Better than 

 studying the style of a master will be to study the things themselves; and 

 better even than studying things will be to study the inwardness of those 

 things. ' Thereupon he gave up the system upon which he had been work- 

 ing, and retired to a beautifully wooded spot on the Chung-nan Mountain 

 in Shensi. There he would gaze upon the shifting values of cloud and 

 mist, the difficult effects of wind and moon and shadow and light, until at 

 length his soul was filled with inspiration, and forth from his brush would 

 come a thousand cliffs and myriad ravines. Then the spectator would feel 

 himself strolling along some shady mountain path; and even though it 

 might be the height of summer, a chill would come over him and a hiuried 

 desire for warmer clothes. Therefore, throughout the Empire Fan K'uan 

 became known as one who could reproduce the spirit of the hills, worthy 

 to drive his chariot abreast with Kuan T'ung or Li Ch'eng." 



Another writer says, "Living among moimtains and forests, he would 

 sometimes spend a whole day sitting upon a crag and looking all around to 

 enjoy the beauties of the scene. Even on snowy nights, when there was 

 a moon he would pace up and down, gazing fixedly in order that inspiration 

 might come. He studied the art of Li Ch'eng; but although he succeeded 

 to perfection, he was still inferior to his master. When subsequently he 

 drew his inspiration from real scenery, with no superfluous ornamenta- 

 tion, then he gave to his mountain a genuine anatomy which ranks him 

 as the founder of a school; and this characteristic of firmness and antiquity, 

 plagiarised from no previous artist, entitled him to equal honours wdth 

 Li Ch'eng. During the long sway of the House of Sung, these two were the 

 only landscape painters of the very first rank, and they have never been 

 surpassed. In their day it was said that, looking into what seems close in 

 Li Ch'eng 's pictures, you see that it is a thousand li away; while when 

 looking into the distance of Fan K'uan 's pictures, the scenery seems to be 

 at hand. Both may be said to have given their creations life." 



