SHI YANJIE (1596-AFTER 1674)

Shi Yanjie, courtesy name Ruirong, Ruizi, was a native of Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). He was good at painting ink bamboo in the wind, rain, snow and moonlight, all of which were vividly rendered. His landscapes depicted mountains, gorges, forests and clouds elegantly. Even while he was imprisoned, he never stopped painting and gifted them to the prison guards. In the thirteenth year of the Kangxi period (1674), he painted Ink Bamboo at the age of seventy-nine.