Gong Xian
Legendary Artist
Painting
Artworks
In Collections
Gong Xian (around 1618–1689) was one of the most important Chinese painters of his time, and the leading figure among the Eight Masters of Nanjing. He was born in Kunshan and spent most of his life near Nanjing. After the Ming dynasty fell to the Manchus, he refused to serve the new Qing rulers and lived a quiet, poor life, working for a while as a tutor. He is remembered today for his dark, layered landscape paintings, where he built up ink again and again to give his mountains and trees a heavy, almost 3D sense of weight and shadow.