The Lingnan School () of painting, also called the Cantonese School, is a style of painting from the

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

or Lingnan region of China. This school reflects a style of

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

founded in the 19th century in

province by ''Two Gaos and one Chen'' -

Gao Jianfu Gao Jianfu (1879–1951; 高剑父, pronounced "Gou Gim Fu" in Cantonese) was a Cantonese artist during World War II. He is known for leading the Lingnan School's effort to modernize Chinese traditional painting as a "new national art."Minglu, Ga ...

Gao Qifeng Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

and

Chen Shuren Chen Shuren (; 1884–1948) was a Chinese painter. Born Chen Zhe (), he was renamed Chen Shao () and also known by the art names De'an Laoren (), Jiawai Yuzi (), and Ershan Shanqiao (), among others. Born in Mingjing, Panyu, Guangdong in 1884, C ...

, also known as "The three greats of Lingnan" (). The Lingnan style of painting was revolutionary and innovative compared to traditional Chinese painting, influenced by

Nihonga ''Nihonga'' (, "Japanese-style paintings") are Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years ...

visual arts and by the early Qing painter, Yun Shouping (1633–1690). In the late 19th century, scholars in China broke through entrenched conservative thoughts and began to actively seek to create and promote new schools and styles of art. This not only cultivated a large amount of ideological progress among social elites but also gave birth to the "eclectic fusion of the Han Chinese and Western style, ancient and modern" Lingnan school. The Lingnan school advocates the introduction of Western painting styles with the integration of Han Chinese and Western paintings, in the spirit of revolution of Oriental arts, while maintaining traditional Han Chinese painting techniques. This school of painting enjoys considerable fame among

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...

peoples A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

. Along with

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

and Cantonese music, they are known as the "three fineries of Lingnan" (Jyutping: Ling5 Naam4 Saam1 Sau3; Traditional Chinese: 嶺南三秀). Meanwhile, the Lingnan school is listed along with Beijing and Tianjin painting school and

Shanghai school ''Haipai'' (, Shanghainese: ''hepha'', ; literally "hangai style") refers to the avant-garde but unique "East Meets West" culture from Shanghai in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is a part of the culture of Shanghai. Etymology The term was coin ...

as the three pillars of modern Chinese painting.

Name

The term "Lingnan School" was not coined by Lingnan painters. During their era,

and

, with their bold and innovative style, were given the title of "The Three Greats of Lingnan." This contributed to the formation of the name "Lingnan school". However, Chan expressed his dissatisfaction with the title "Lingnan school" as he felt that it suggested that the school was merely regional and that it did not reflect the absorption of overseas styles and the idealism of innovation in Han Chinese paintings. Gao Jianfu never used the name "Lingnan school of painting," and would rather call it "eclectic." "Lingnan painting" refers to the work of painters in the

province in general.

Techniques

According to Wang Lipu's view, Lingnan school is characterized by: #''Blank space focus'': Lingnan paintings, in line with traditional Han Chinese painting styles, are focused on the "presence of both the real and the surreal", and "paying attention to the places without ink" - inheriting the traditional techniques of

ink wash painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...

s. #''Strokes focus'': Lingnan school's strokes are complex and anti-tradition, with the goal of achieving magnificence and vividness. #''Bright coloring'': Influenced by

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, Lingnan paintings focus on the light performance. Most of the colors are very bright, in stark contrast to the traditional ink wash painting, which in turn is pale, stressing "With paleness comes the soul of pens and ink". #''Rendering of background colors'': Since the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

poet-artist Wang Wei put forward the idea that ink wash was superior, In general, Han Chinese painting styles focus on the use of ink wash and abstain from coloring. Lingnan school does the opposite.

Notable artists

* Chao Shao-an (Zhao Shao'ang) * Guan Shanyue *

He Xiangning He Xiangning (; 27 June 1878 – 1 September 1972) was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, politician, painter, and poet. Together with her husband Liao Zhongkai, she was one of the earliest members of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary movement Tongm ...

* Huang Junbi *

Li Jinkun Li, li, or LI may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Landscape Institute, a British professional body for landscape architects * Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia, US, that teaches "political te ...

* Li Xiongcai * Liu Chuncao *Yang Shan Shen * Au Ho-nien *Ho Fung-lin *Hsin Peng Chiu * Anita Yan Wong

Gallery

File:高劍父2.jpg, "Rain in the fishing harbor" (), by Gao Jianfu, in 1935. File:高奇峰鳥.jpg, Flowers and birds, by Gao Qifeng. File:高奇峰鹿.jpg, Deer, by Gao Qifeng. File: Gao Qifeng - White horse - Google Art Project.jpg, White horse, by Gao Qifeng.

References

External links

岭南画派：岭南派画家陈蕴化建立的介绍岭南画派的网站
(in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...