(b Jiangshan, Zhejiang Province; fl late 13th century–early 14th). Chinese painter. He was a painter of Buddhist and Daoist figures, ghosts and landscapes, who was well respected as a painter by the literati by the end of the Song period (960–1279). Of some 35 paintings attributed to him, only a few can be considered to be genuine; among these, the best known are those mounted as a pair of hanging scrolls (ink and colour on silk; Kyoto, Chion’in) depicting two Daoist immortals, Li Tieguai and Liu Haichan, both of which are executed in the extremely realistic style for which Yan is known. There is special attention to physiognomy—to the point of grotesqueness—to volume and to modelling of the body, and to the strong contrast between light and dark areas. Both works also include a misty landscape that serves as a background to the figures, a feature derived from landscape painting of the Southern Song period (1127–1279). Another painting of Li Tieguai (hanging scroll, Beijing, Pal. Mus.) is done in a similar style, but using very arbitrary and eccentric lines. Lantern Night Excursion of Zhong Kui (handscroll, ink on silk; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.) depicts the legendary demon-queller with a considerable entourage of demons, each with its peculiar posture or expression. An equally well-known work is Two Monkeys on the Branch of a Pipa Tree (Taipei, N. Pal. Mus.). In all these paintings there is a consistent style that shows Yan as a master of realism, who used eccentric brushwork to depict grotesque figures, thereby representing one early stylistic aspect of the Yuan period (1279–1368). Many of Yan’s extant works are now in Japan, and only a few are in China, indicating that although Yan’s style lost its appeal to later Chinese painters who were more attracted to the literati style, it found many followers in Japan.

• Yan Hui
  • China, §V, 3(ii)(a): Chan Buddhist paintings