Liu Songnian

CHINA, Zhejiang, Hangzhou; Southern Song dynasty

Liu Songnian, also known as Anmen Liu or Liu Qingbo, was a painter from Qiantang (present day Hangzhou). He was a student and later painter-in-attendance at the Imperial Painting Academy. His specialty was in depicting figures and landscapes, especially arhats. His painting, Farming and Weaving, was highly praised by Emperor Ningzong (reigned 1194–1224) and was awarded the highest honor in the court.
Liu painted landscapes with great detail and precision, utilizing bright colors and a light ink application. He often depicted the trees, bamboo, mountains, and rivers of Jiangnan (region south of the Yangtze River). Also skilled in figure painting, he portrayed vivid forms with lively expressions. Liu’s brushwork, which was steady and refined, was representative of the style seen in the Imperial Painting Academy during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). Together with Li Tang, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui, Liu is regarded as one of the Four Masters of the Southern Song dynasty.
His extant figurative works, which include three paintings of Arhats and Drunken Monk, are currently kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. His landscape paintings include Four Scenes, which is currently retained at the National Palace Museum in Beijing, and Traveling in Cloudy Mountains at the Sichuan Museum in Chengdu.