Zhao Mengfu

Zhao Mengfu was a descendant of the Song dynasty's imperial family and a scholar-official who served under the Mongol Yuan dynasty. He was a versatile artist who excelled in calligraphy, painting, and poetry. He was especially renowned for his paintings of horses, which he depicted with expressive brushwork and vivid realism. He also painted landscapes, flowers, birds, and figures, often incorporating inscriptions of his own poems or those of his friends. He was influenced by the ancient masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, and he sought to revive their styles and techniques. He rejected the refined and elegant style of his contemporaries and advocated for a more simple and natural approach. He is considered to have brought about a revolution in Chinese landscape painting, paving the way for the later masters of the literati tradition. He was also a leader of the Academy of Worthies, a group of scholar-artists who shared his aesthetic ideals and cultural values. He was married to Guan Daosheng, a talented poet, painter, and calligrapher, who often collaborated with him on artistic projects. He had four sons, of whom Zhao Yong also became a famous painter and calligrapher. He was also the maternal grandfather of Wang Meng, another prominent painter of the Yuan dynasty. Zhao Mengfu was highly respected and influential in his lifetime and beyond, and his works are regarded as treasures of Chinese art history.