Li Sixun
Master of blue-green landscape painting
Li Sixun(李思训) (651–716), styled Jian, also called Jianjing, was from Chengji (modern Tianshui, Gansu) and a member of the Tang royal family. He was a painter and calligrapher during the Tang dynasty. During Emperor Gaozong's reign, he served as the governor of Jiangdu in Yangzhou. During Empress Wu's rule, many members of the royal family were targeted, and he was forced to 'abandon his post and go into hiding.' He only returned to office after Emperor Zhongzong was restored. Under Emperor Xuanzong, he rose to the position of General of the Right Imperial Guard. He was skilled in calligraphy and excelled at painting landscapes in the blue-and-green style. He followed the style of the Sui painter Zhan Ziqian but developed it further, creating landscapes with a grand and imaginative feel, strong brushwork, and a decorative quality. People of his time praised him as 'the best landscape painter of the era,' and he has been called 'General Li the Great' in art history. In the Ming dynasty, the painter Dong Qichang proposed the theory of Northern and Southern Schools of painting and named him as an ancestor of the 'Northern School.'