Xia Gui

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Xia Gui (Chinese: 夏圭, c. 1195–1224) Chinese scroll painter of the Song Dynasty, who was one of the great masters of the Southern Song landscape style. He was active in the imperial painting academy at Hangzhou during the reign of Emperor Ningzong of Song. Along with his celebrated contemporary artist Ma Yuan, he broke with the elaborate ornamental style of the period to cultivate a simpler, more emotional mode based on the work of earlier masters of the Tang Dynasty.

Xia’s landscapes, characterized by asymmetrical composition—painting only one corner out of four—reduced human figures and buildings to minor accents. He was especially noted for his brilliant ink technique, in which extremely subtle, graded ink washes and overlapping brushstrokes created complex atmospheric effects of mist, sky, and infinity. In Clear View of Streams and Mountains kept in National Palace Museum, in Taipei, Taiwan, a 9-m (30-ft) hand scroll, the panoramic sweep of landscape contains a full use of his varied brushwork. Along with Ma Yuan, he gave his name to the succeeding Ma and Xia School of landscape painting.