Playing with the Brush after the Manner of Tian You Sheng [Lu Guang]

In this painting the monk-painter Fang Yizhi depicted a man sitting by an open window in a thatched cottage beside a stream. This traditional theme of retreating to the mountains seemed to be the artist’s personal statement to convey loneliness. The complexity of the mountain ranges dominating the top of the composition makes the painting intriguing. The style, mentioned in Fang’s inscription on the painting, adopted that of the fourteenth-century painter Lu Guang.

Fang’s peaceful life was turned upside down when the Ming dynasty collapsed in 1644. He joined many Han Chinese in exile in the countryside and eventually converted to Buddhism. Living simply in complete isolation, Fang devoted himself to religious pursuits and the study of Chan (Zen) Buddhism.