Ruan Gao

Chinese

Master of Taoist female figure paintings

Ruan Gao(阮郜) was a painter from the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties period. His birth and death years are unknown, but he probably worked in the Wu and Yue regions. Records from the Song dynasty mention that he once served as a steward at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Ruan Gao was skilled in painting, especially good at figure painting, often depicting Taoist themes, and he particularly excelled at painting women. One of his surviving works is the handscroll 'Immortal Women of Langyuan,' which is considered his only extant piece.