Gu Kaizhi

Gu Kaizhi the Chinese painter of the Eastern Jin dynasty (c. 344-406), regarded as the founding master of Chinese figure painting and the first great named painter of the tradition. His scrolls and his writings on the art made him the model for later painters and the earliest theorist of Chinese painting.

Life and Career

Gu Kaizhi was born around 344 in Wuxi, in the region of the lower Yangtze, into a family of official standing. He served in a series of government posts and rose to a position of some responsibility, but it is for his painting that he is remembered. He lived in the same cultured aristocratic world as the calligrapher Wang Xizhi, and the arts flourished around the Eastern Jin court.

He was renowned in his own lifetime for his portraits and figure paintings. He painted the portraits of officials, scholars and Buddhist figures, and he was much sought after by the wealthy and powerful. He is said to have been an engaging and eccentric personality, fond of jokes and of company, and anecdotes about him survive in the early histories.

One famous story relates that he painted a portrait of a man and left out the eyes for several years. When asked why, he replied that the eyes are the most important part of a portrait and that he was waiting for the right moment; the tale illustrates his belief that the essential life of a figure resides in the eyes and the expression.

Figure Painting and the Spirit

Gu Kaizhi's art was devoted above all to the human figure. In his time painting was understood as a means of conveying moral and social meaning, and portraits and scenes of virtuous conduct were valued for their exemplary power. He brought to this traditional task a new subtlety of observation and a new attention to the inner life of his subjects.

He held that the painter must capture the spirit, or shen, rather than merely the outward likeness. The aim was not a photographic record of appearances but an evocation of the character and vitality of the person, achieved through the pose, the drapery and above all the eyes. This principle of conveying the spirit became a central doctrine of Chinese painting.

His treatment of line was especially admired. He used a fine, continuous brush line, sometimes compared to the thread of a silkworm, to describe the forms of figures and their clothing, and the rhythm of this line gave his paintings their elegance and their sense of life. Later critics studied his brushwork as a model of refinement.

The Admonitions Scroll

The most celebrated work associated with Gu Kaizhi is the Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies, a handscroll that illustrates a text of moral instruction for women of the palace. The painting survives in a later copy, and it is regarded as the finest surviving example of early Chinese figure painting and the closest reflection of his style.

The scroll combines text and image in a continuous sequence of scenes. It depicts court ladies in a variety of situations, at their toilet, in conversation, playing music and receiving instruction, and it renders their dress, gestures and surroundings with great delicacy. The figures are expressive without being theatrical, and the composition has a calm and ordered beauty.

The work is admired for the way in which it converts a moral text into vivid human scenes. The painter shows sympathy for the women whose conduct is being regulated, and the visual narrative conveys both instruction and a quiet sense of the beauty and melancholy of palace life. It has been studied and copied for centuries.

Writings on Painting

Gu Kaizhi is also important as a writer on art. Three short essays have come down under his name, and in them he sets out ideas about the purpose and the method of painting. They are among the earliest surviving discussions of the theory of Chinese painting, and they shaped the way the art was understood in later ages.

In these writings he speaks of the need to capture the spirit of the subject, to give life to the figure beyond mere physical resemblance, and to arrange the composition with thought. He discusses the difficulties of painting different subjects, and he reflects on the relation between the painter's mind and the work of his hand.

His theoretical remarks, though brief, introduced concerns that would occupy Chinese painters and critics for a thousand years: the distinction between outer form and inner spirit, the importance of the eyes, and the ideal of a painting that breathes with life. He thus stands at the beginning of the long tradition of Chinese writing on art.

Influence and Legacy

Gu Kaizhi became the founding figure of Chinese figure painting and the model for later masters. He was cited as the first great named painter, and his manner was studied and imitated through the centuries. The principle of conveying the spirit that he articulated became a foundation of the aesthetic, applied to landscape and flower painting as well as to the figure.

His surviving scroll, though a copy, is among the greatest treasures of Chinese art and is prized for its insight into early painting. The work has influenced generations of artists and has been the subject of extensive scholarship, and it provides a window into the visual culture of the Six Dynasties period.

He is honoured as the painter who gave Chinese art its first theory and its first masterpieces, and as a figure whose reputation has never faded. His sayings about the eyes and the spirit are still quoted, and his name is inseparably linked with the birth of the classical tradition of Chinese painting.

See also

• Chinese painting
• Admonitions Scroll
• Six Dynasties
• Figure painting