吴炳
精工细笔花鸟画
吴炳（生卒年不详）为毗陵武进（今江苏常州）人。南宋光宗绍熙年间（1190–1194），任画院待诏。李皇后赏识其画作，任命他为画院待诏，并赐金带。他主要擅长工笔花鸟画。 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.'