Gao Fenghan

Gao Fenghan was born into a wealthy family of scholar officials in Jiaozhou, Shandong province. He developed an interest in poetry, painting, and seal-carving in his early youth, and collected old seals and inkstones. He passed the local-level civil-service examination in 1727 and served as a petty bureaucrat in Anhui province for about a decade. He was exposed to artistic trends outside his home province and became associated with the Yangzhou school of painters, who were known as eccentrics for their unorthodox style and preference for individualism. In 1737, he lost his government position and his right hand became paralyzed from acute rheumatism. He did not give up painting, but relearned how to write and paint with his left hand. His paintings and calligraphy from the second phase of his artistic career are much different from his earlier works. He was a free-spirited character who was interested in unconventional artistic techniques. He lived in a Buddhist monastery in Yangzhou and often indulged in alcohol. He died in 1749 from his illness.