Lot 1044: LAN YING (1585-CIRCA 1664)

LAN YING (1585-CIRCA 1664)
Strolling Through a Winter Forest
Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Inscribed with a poem and signed: Lan Ying, with two seals
70 x 18¾ in. (178 x 47.6 cm.)

Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 April 2002, lot 437.

A native of Qiantang in Zhejiang, Lan Ying was a professional painter who followed the Southern Song style. However, his connections with, and interest in, the literati painting tradition inspired him to develop an innovative personal manner. Complemented by his poetic inscriptions, Lan Ying's paintings are atmospheric compositions that well capture the seasons depicted in his pictures. Lan Ying's figures are particulaly animated, as they clearly are actively engaged in the surrounding landscapes. These qualities can also be seen in an autumn landscape painted by Lan Ying in 1640, that is in the Princeton University Art Museum, and is illustrated in W.C. Fong, Images of the Mind, Princeton, 1984, p. 389, no. 31.