Chinese Artist Gu Kaizhi and some of his artwork mainly Nymph of the Luo River - Research Paper Example

One such popular artist was Gu Kaizhi who was born in c. 344 at Wuxi, Jiangsu province in China and died in the year c. 406. As a native of Jiangsu, Wuxi province, Gu whose origin was from an Eastern dynasty elite family grew up and became a fantastic painter and writer. From his bibliography, it is clear that during the jin shu (Jin) history, Gu paintings were successful (Suzuki 6). He is noted to have paid high attention to identifying the figures’ eyes so as to obtain the spiritual communion effect.

His successive dynasties’ famous paintings imply that Gu’s explored his talent while using his brush and when the painting was complete the actual conception had been embroidered. Some of the books that Gu authored include the introducing famous Jin Dynasties and Wei Paintings, On painting, and Record on the Yuntai mountain painting. It has been noted that theories that were documented in these books still affect the Chinese painters generation. He is among the earliest many-faceted China artists who came up with new standards for figure painting.

As widely noted, Gu Kaizhi was one of the most popular eccentric courtier commonly known for being a figure subject and a painter of portraits. His art has been known for both paintings and written records and recorded as being one among the many who painted the representation of the Vimalakirti. The hand scroll popularly referred to as the nymph of the Luo River, which illustrates a Daoist poem and his essay often referred to as on the painting the Cloud Terrace Mountain are the two versions of paintings recorded as his painting (Yang 19).

The popular hand scroll that bears the title The Admonitions of Court Instructress has his signature although it has not been recorded as his own original painting (Yang 29). However, one thing to content with is that it accurately maintains its Pre-Tang dynasty style with the scroll illustrating a series of scenes often separated by texts of didactic Confucian poem with a proper character for court ladies. It also has a line carefully controlled with a composition that highlights the selected details which illustrate and expand effectively on the nature of the text.

This paper seeks to discuss one of the works of Gu Kaizhi paintings, commonly referred to as The Nymph of the Luo River. Certainly, The Nymph of the Luo River is one of the most likeable Gu Kaizhi’s paintings. The work was painted by Cao Zhi and inspired by Ode. It existed in three copies closely related to the Sing dynasty. One of the copies is held in the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. while the other is in the Beijing’s Palace Museum, and the last copy was in Manchuria. This was brought to that place by Pu Yi who was the last emperor.

He did this while operating as the Manchukuo’s puppet emperor under the rule of the Japanese. However, after the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the painting disappeared and was brought back after ten years to the provincial Museum at Liaoning. Historically, Cao Zhi was a poet in a period of three kingdoms (McCausland 10). The poem narrates a story of love between a woman referred to as Zhen and the poet. The woman later marred the elder brother of Cao Zhi who was known as Cao Pei. The poem describes the romantic encounter at the nymph and the lingering love experience of Cao Pei towards the wife of his brother.

It captures the first