(b Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, AD 344; d 407). Chinese painter. According to his official biography in the Jin shu (‘History of the Jin dynasty’; compiled Tang period (AD 618–907)), he held office at the Eastern Jin (AD 317–420) court at Jiangkang (Nanjing). The biography also records the opinion of his contemporary Xie An that he was an artist unexcelled in all time. In the history of Chinese painting his name remains a byword as one of the foremost figure painters, whose style was influential throughout the centuries. Some extremely well-known themes are associated with him, while literary records, particularly Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghua ji (‘Record of famous painters of all periods’; AD 847), preserve Gu’s own writings as well as many references to his paintings. By the late Tang period, paintings by Gu Kaizhi were among those that Zhang Yanyuan’s grandfather had to surrender to the throne. Emperor Xianzong (reg 805–20) himself acknowledged them, professing to honour and treasure them. Zhang Yanyuan’s judgement on Gu Kaizhi’s brushwork is one of the cornerstones of Gu’s reputation:In the works of Ku K’ai-chih [the strokes] are firm and tense and connect with one another uninterruptedly; they circle back upon themselves in sudden rushes. His tone and style are evanescent and variable, his atmosphere and interest lightning and sudden. His conception was kept whole [in his mind] before [he used] his brush, so that when the painting was all finished the conception was [embodied] in it, and therefore it was all divine breath (trans. Acker, pp. 177–9).Zhang also praised the divine quality of Gu’s ‘thorough and exact brushwork’, in which the ends of the strokes were not visible, although he was still more appreciative of the brushwork of the Tang-period master WU DAOZI, who seemed able to reflect an image with just one or two strokes and in whose work, though the strokes might be incomplete, the intention was fully realized.

• Gu Kaizhi
  • China, §I, 8(i): Status of art: Artist
  • China, §V, 1(i): Painting: Neolithic to Five Dynasties
  • China, §V, 3(iii): Painting themes: Daoist
  • China, §V, 3(vii)(a): Figure painting: Bronze Age to Northern and Southern Dynasties
  • China, §V, 3(viii)(b): Historical development of portrait painting
  • China, §V, 4(i)(b): Court painters: Shang to Five Dynasties
  • Forgery, §II, 1: Authentication techniques: Connoisseurship
  • Jin dynasty, §2: Eastern Jin
  • Suzhou
  • attributions
    • Women and art history, §IV, 3: East Asia: Influence of women on subject and style
    • Xiang: (1) Xiang Yuanbian
  • copies
    • China, §XI, 2(ii): Furniture: Historical survey: Three Kingdoms to Tang
  • works
    • Brushline
    • China, §V, 3(i): Painting themes: Buddhist
    • China, §V, 3(i)(b): Buddhist painted scrolls, banners and related objects
    • China, §V, 3(iv)(b): Landscape painting: Theoretical writings
    • China, §IX, 2: Lacquer: Zhou to Sui
    • China, §XIII, 16(ii): Jewellery: Han to Six Dynasties
    • Confucianism, §2(i): Heroic stage
  • writings
    • China, §I, 6(ii)(c): Secular iconography and subject-matter
    • China, §V, 5: Painting theory and criticism
    • Poetry and painting