Tang Yin

CHINA, Jiangsu, Suzhou; Ming dynasty

Tang Yin was a painter from Wu (present day Suzhou, Jiangsu) who was also known as Bohu, Ziwei, or Liuru Jushi. Erudite and skilled in many different disciplines, he is regarded as one of the Four Elite Scholars of the Wu Region alongside Zhu Yunming, Wen Zhengming, and Xu Zhenqing. Additionally, together with Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, and Qiu Ying, he was renowned as one of the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Taking refuge in Buddhism in his later years, he studied Chan and authored Collection of Liuru Jushi.
Tang excelled in landscape painting and studied under many well-known masters such as Zhou Chen, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Li Tang, and Liu Songnian. He was also adept in depicting figures with fine brushwork and a carefree sensibility, especially when expressing the elegant and graceful postures of female figures; these aspects of Tang’s painting style were greatly influenced by the works of painting masters Zhao Mengfu, Wang Meng, and Huang Gongwang. Fond of ink wash, he often used the technique to paint flowers and birds with charming characteristics.
Of his many extant works, Vimalakirti Teaching the Dharma and Tea Tasting are kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan; Scenery of Pei Tai and his calligraphy Couplet Verses in running script are kept at the Palace Museum in Beijing; Watching the Spring and Hearing the Wind are at the Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu; Huashan Mountain is kept at Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, USA; and Southern Journey is kept at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., USA.