Chen Jianru
Master of Yuan white-line figure painting
Chen Jianru(陳鋻如), a person from the Yuan Dynasty, was born in Hangzhou. He was skilled at painting portraits and was especially good at figure painting. He was considered the top artist of his time and even praised as 'the top artist of the nation.' His surviving work, the handscroll 'The Great Master of the Bamboo Grove Coming Down the Mountain,' was signed and created in the 23rd year of Zhizheng (1363). It’s ink on paper in a white-line style, 28 cm in height, and is now housed in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. The inscriptions on the painting were added later, and there’s some debate among scholars about their authenticity. His painting style followed the white-line tradition of Northern Song artist Li Gonglin, and he was good at using iron-wire lines. Chen Jianru had a son, Chen Zhitian, who was also skilled at capturing the spirit of his subjects.