Tan Zhirui
Master of dense ink bamboo landscapes
Tan Zhirui(檀芝瑞), courtesy name Yishan(一山), also known as Hu Weng(壶翁), was a painter of the Ming Dynasty, but his exact birth and death years are unknown. His name appears in the 'Dictionary of Chinese Artists,' though only briefly. It was once thought that he was from the Yuan Dynasty, but based on the 'Farewell Painting' housed in the Wenzhou Museum, it can be confirmed that he was from the Ming Dynasty, mainly active during the Jiajing period (1522–1566). He was skilled at painting bamboo and plum blossoms, and also had considerable accomplishments in landscape and figure painting. Tan Zhirui excelled in painting ink bamboo, creating dense forests of thousands of stalks; he was also good at painting plum and orchid. There are very few of his works surviving today, mostly in Japan and the United States. The only work remaining in China is the 'Farewell Painting Scroll,' which is in the Wenzhou Museum. Other known works include 'Bamboo Painting' at the Tokyo National Museum in Japan, 'Snow Bamboo Painting' at the Freer Gallery of Art in the U.S., and the 'Xiu Huangpo Stone Painting' scroll (attributed) at Jingyuanzhai in the U.S. His bamboo painting style is different from the bamboo in flower-and-bird painting, resembling more the scenery bamboo in landscape painting. His style is close to that of Zhang Pingshan and Wu Xiaoxian.