Wu Bing
Exquisite meticulous bird-and-flower paintings
Wu Bing(吴炳) (exact years of birth and death unknown) was from Wuyang, Pilin (now Changzhou, Jiangsu). During the Shaoxi years of Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty (1190–1194), he served as an Attendant at the Painting Academy. Empress Li admired his paintings and appointed him as an Attendant at the Painting Academy, giving him a gold belt. He mainly focused on meticulous bird-and-flower paintings. His representative works include 'Bamboo and Sparrow', 'Lotus in Life Drawing (Lotus Emerging from Water)', 'Poppy', 'Precious Jewel and Jade Butterfly', 'Mandarin Duck and Auspicious Lotus', 'Peach Branch', 'Spring Pond Sleeping Ducks', and 'Camellia and Pigeon', among others. Paintings such as 'Spring Pond Sleeping Ducks', 'Camellia and Pigeon', 'Mandarin Duck and Auspicious Lotus', 'Precious Jewel and Jade Butterfly', and 'Peach Branch' (26 pieces in total) are recorded in 'Huishi Beikao'. Wu Bing was known for his life-drawing of broken branches, and his works were often small fan-shaped or album pages, with delicate and lavish coloring. His 'Lotus Emerging from Water' is on silk with color, measuring 23.8 cm in height and 25 cm in width; the old title attributed it to Wu Bing, though there's no solid evidence. 'Bamboo and Sparrow' is in the Shanghai Museum, and 'Camellia and Pigeon' is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the Yuan Dynasty, Xia Wenyen's 'Tuhui Baojian' praised his painting style, saying, 'Life-drawing of broken branches, rivaling nature, with exquisite and lavish coloring.'