Yan Hui
Bold ink washes depicting spiritual figures
Yan Hui(颜辉) (around 1274–around 1354), courtesy name Qiuyue(秋月), was from Luling (now Ji'an, Jiangxi). He was a painter active during the late Song and early Yuan periods. He specialized in painting Buddhist, Taoist, and ghostly figures, as well as monkeys. His brushwork was bold and unrestrained, following the ink-style techniques of Liang Kai, using ink washes to enhance a sense of three-dimensionality. He was once praised as having ‘an extraordinary brush technique that brings energy to all sides.’ In the 4th year of the Dade era under Yuan Emperor Chengzong (1300), at the age of 27, he painted murals at Fushun Palace in Luling. His surviving works include 'Zhong Kui Outing on a Rainy Night,' 'Portrait of Li Xian,' 'Monkey Painting,' 'Cold Mountain and Picked-up Virtue,' and 'Portrait of the Toad Immortal,' held in institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art in the U.S., the Palace Museum, the Yanhuang Art Museum, and Chion-in Temple in Japan. Around the 14th year of the Zhizheng era (1354), Yan Hui passed away due to illness at the age of 81. Japanese scholar Kondo Hidemitsu, based on Liu Jiangsun's 'Yangwu Zhai Collection,' confirmed that Yan Hui was from Luling. Many of his works were brought to Japan, significantly influencing Muromachi-period painting, although his reputation in the native Yuan art scene was relatively subdued.