Cui Bai

CHINA, Anhui, Chuzhou; Northern Song dynasty

Cui Bai, also known as Zixi, was a painter from Haoliang (present day Fengyang, Chuzhou). He worked as an editorial assistant in the Imperial Painting Academy, and was a skilled painter of flowers and birds, Buddhist and Daoist images, as well as landscapes. Based on the works of Xu Xi and Huang Quan, Cui Bai developed his own painting style, which was unique in its delicacy and deterred from the typical painting style of the early Song era.
Overview of Painting documented that in 1065, Cui participated in the restoration of murals at Xiangguo Temple in Henan after they were destroyed by floods. Throughout his lifetime, Cui produced several hundred paintings, 241 of which were recorded in Xuanhe Catalog of Paintings. His surviving piece, Double Happiness, is currently kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.