Ren Renfa
Master of Yuan horse painting
Ren Renfa(任仁发) (1254–1327), courtesy name Ziming(子明), also called Ziyao(子垚), with the pseudonym Yueshan(月山), was from Qinglong Town, Songjiang (now Baihe Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai). He was a hydraulic engineer and painter during the Yuan dynasty. In the third year of the Xianchun era of the Song dynasty (1267), he passed the imperial examination and became a jinshi. After entering the Yuan dynasty, he served in various positions such as Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Water Control and Deputy Commissioner of Zhedong Circuit. He oversaw water conservancy projects including the Yan officer sea dike, Zhenjiang Lianhu Lake, and the Grand Capital Tonghui River, and authored works like "Discussions on Water Conservancy" and "Collection of Water Conservancy". Ren Renfa excelled in calligraphy, following the style of Li Yong, and was particularly skilled in painting horses. He claimed to carry on the techniques of Han Gan. His surviving works include "Two Horses", "Autumn Water with Ducks and Egrets", and "Drinking and Feeding". In his later years, he resigned from office and retired to the banks of Qinglong River, where he built the pavilions "Lanhui Ge" and "Laiqing Lou" and lived out his life there. His painting "Five Kings Drunken Return" was sold for 303.6 million yuan at the 2016 Poly Autumn Auction, setting a global record for Chinese art that year. The painting bears collectors' seals from the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Xuantong emperors; it later ended up in private hands, having previously been part of the Qing imperial collection.