Li Tang

He perfected the technique of "axe-cut" brush-strokes and his style of painting became for what is regarded as the academy-style landscape of the Southern Song.

The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Guo Xi is recorded as an influence. Work by Li Tang is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Palace Museum, Seattle Art Museum, The Palace Museum and Tianjin Museum.

• Name — Li Tang • Born — ca.1050 • Birthplace — China • Died — 1130 • Known for — Painting • Movement — Southern Song Dynasty Li

Li Tang was born ca. 1050, a native of Heyang. Already in his early years he earned his living by painting. Sometime after 1100, under Emperor Huizong, he earned the highest rank in the Painting Academy at the court in Bianjing (now Kaifeng). He survived the invasion by the Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1126–27, and, together with the court, moved to Qiantang (now Hangzhou), which became the capital city of the newly established Southern Song Dynasty. He continued to serve as painter in the court under Emperor Gaozong, and died circa 1130.

• Illustration — Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State attributed to Li Tang (1140) Li was among the most influential of the early Southern Song landscape artists and had many followers. He represented a vital link between the Northern Song school (Guo Xi, Fan Kuan, Li Cheng, and others), and the later Southern Song painters, such as Xia Gui and Ma Yuan, both of whom studied Li's art. He developed and perfected the technique of the so-called "ax-cut" brushstrokes, which gave rocks and mountains a particularly fine quality.

As with most Song artists, few of Li Tang's paintings survive, and most are of questionable authorship. The large hanging scroll Wind in Pines Among a Myriad Valleys (also known as Whispering Pines in the Mountains; National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan) is the only painting that bears a clear signature by the artist, which is placed on one of the peaks in the top section. It reads: "Painted by Li Tang of Ho-yang in Spring of the chia-ch'en year of the Hsüan-ho Reign of the Great Song [Dynasty]." The texture of the rocks in this painting is a standard example of the "ax-cut" strokes technique.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. Recorded with the occupation painter. Recorded with the occupation poet. Recorded with the occupation landscape painter. The same evidence establishes that li Tang is recorded as a citizen of Song dynasty. Institutional cataloguing adds that li Tang is recorded with the gender male. The record continues: li Tang was born on 1 January 1049. Tang died on 1 January 1130. Classed in the genre landscape painting.