"Holden, Wendy; 'A Guide to Cataloguing Chinese Art', Visual Resources Association Special Bulletin No. 13, (1050138x). f23k37 Alternate names: Fan K'uan, ?? Song dynasty (b Huayuan [now Hua xian, Shaanxi Province], c. ad 990; d c. 1030). Chinese painter. He was one of the most important representatives of the monumental tradition of Northern Song (960?1127) landscape painting, which at that time was becoming established as the most important category of painting in China (see China, �V, 3(iv)(b)). About 1024 Guo Ruoxu ( fl 11th century), a minor court official at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song dynasty, wrote in the Tuhua jianwen zhi (?Experiences in painting?) that Fan Kuan was the equal of Li Cheng and Guan Tong and that these three masters stood ?like the legs of a tripod? and would serve as models ?for a hundred generations?. About 20 years later, Liu Daochun (fl mid-11th century) wrote in the Shengchao minghua ping (?Critique of famous painters of the present dynasty?) that the only landscapists deserving absolute praise were Li Cheng and Fan Kuan and that there was no-one, past or present, who compared with them. Fan Kuan was not a scholar, nor did he pass any examinations or hold any official position. Guo Ruoxu wrote that ?Kuan?s manner and appearance had an antique severity, that his behaviour was rude and rustic and that it was his nature to crave wine and love the Daoist Way?. His earlier work was based on the paintings of Li cheng, which he studied as a young man, as well as on those of Jing hao. As he matured, however, Fan introduced innovations obviously based on direct and careful observation of nature. According to the Xuanhe huapu (?Xuanhe collection of paintings?; the catalogue of the paintings of the Song emperor Huizong (reg 1101?26); preface dated 1120), he believed that, like those before him who had made it their rule never to be detached from things, he too should learn, not from other men but from things themselves or, better still, from their inner nature. In order to accomplish this he isolated himself from society and lived alone in the mountains, exactly where is not known. His artistic activity, temperament and way of life are clearly reflected in the character of his landscapes. They have a rational order and inherent structural precision that reflect a Neo-Confucianist cosmic view, and surface textures and atmospheric effects that could only have been based on careful observation of nature in all its moods. As early as the beginning of the Song period (960?1279), critics distinguished between two major schools of painting originating with either Li Cheng or Fan Kuan. The comparison involved not only their general styles but also their brush techniques. According to Mi Fu, in the Hua shi (?History of painting?; completed 1103), Fan Kuan?s work was ?as dark as nightfall on a gloomy day?, and his excessive use of ink in his later years made it impossible to distinguish the earth from the rocks in his paintings. Mi Fu went so far as to rank Fan Kuan as superior to all the landscape painters of his period, but other critics generally regarded Fan Kuan and Li Cheng as equals, and both as belonging to the ?divine? (shen) category of painters. Sternness and independence were the qualities most frequently associated with Fan Kuan. Throughout his career, his creative genius was patently nurtured by the quality of his communication with nature. It was felt that his paintings revealed no sense of the soft or mellow aspects of nature, but his attention to realism earned him a reputation for ?showing the very bones of the mountains? (Miyagawa, p. 176); and Mi wrote that ?in Fan Kuan?s landscapes you can hear the water? (Loehr, p. 100). According to Alexander Soper, the commentaries of Liu Daochun referred to the ?real rocks and ancient trees which thrust themselves up, alive, under his brush. One finds in him a spirit consonance (qiyun) that goes beyond the surface of things and an indifference to ornamental beauty? (see 1961?2 exh. cat., no. 18). Fan?s sense of order came to be regarded as characteristic of the Northern Song tradition of landscape painting. He introduced the principle of sanfen gefa (?three-division method?) of staggered depth to establish a logical, three-part organization: foreground, middle ground and background?the ?three distances? (sanyuan). High distance (gaoyuan) perspective set off towering peaks in monumental settings against tiny human forms. These cliff faces were given form as well as a rocklike sense of mass by a brushstroke known as yudian cun (?raindrop texture stroke?). This technique may have been used earlier but Fan was the first to develop it systematically on a large scale. The only authenticated example of Fan Kuan?s work is Travellers among Mountains and Streams, one of the most famous Chinese paintings. Originally believed to have been unsigned, this hanging scroll bears a signature (rediscovered in 1958) in the lower right-hand corner. Additional authentication is provided by an inscription on the mount by Dong Qichang, which attributes the work to Fan and gives the title. Consisting of two panels joined at the centre, the painting is monumental both in conception and in size. At the centre of the composition and dominating it is a massive vertical cliff viewed in the high distance, which creates a visual barrier to movement beyond the middle ground. Only the mountain crests have vegetation. Space provided for movement is limited to the foreground, where the tiny figures of travellers, dwarfed by the central mass, are seen on a road which runs from right to left. Clustered at the base of the cliff, and thus providing a transition between middle ground and background, are mists, created by light ink washes, which silhouette the roofs of a temple barely visible above the densely wooded hill. The entire composition emphasizes rational organization and the unmistakable sense of nature?s dominance. It also strongly reflects the severity identified with Fan?s style. Several other paintings in the National Palace Museum in Taipei are attributed to Fan Kuan but none is signed. Fan Kuan exerted enormous influence on contemporary artists such as Yan Wengui as well as on subsequent generations. The later Song master Li Tang made persistent references to him in such compositions as Whispering Pines in the Gorges (hanging scroll; ink and light colour on silk; 1.88�1.39 m; 1124; Taipei, N. Pal. Mus.). Even though the balance of foreground to background and the sense of space have been modified, as has the brushstroke, a dependence on the earlier heroic style is clearly evident. Copies made in the later part of the Ming (1368?1644) and early Qing (1644?1911) periods were increasingly removed from the original in their rendering of space, the proportional relationships between pictorial elements and the different brushwork, although the original conception remained.--DOA"@en . . "Fan, Kuan"@en . . "2015-06-18"^^ . "2015-07-16"^^ . "2015-08-25"^^ . "2015-06-18"^^ . "2015-07-16"^^ . "2015-08-25"^^ . "ca. 990-1030"@en . . .