Liu Songnian

or Liu Sung-nien

(born 1174—died 1224, Qiantang, Zhejiang province, China) Chinese figure and landscape painter. Liu entered the Southern Song Painting Academy as a student in the Chunxi period (1174–89) and went on to become a daizhao (“painter-in-attendance”) in the Shaoxi period (1190–94). During the reign of the emperor Ningzong (1195–1224) he was awarded the prestigious Golden Belt. Liu followed the tradition of Li Tang. Typically his works featured relatively large figures executed in a detailed manner and placed close to the spectator in the picture plane. The facial expressions of his figures are vivid, and the patterns in which their clothing drapes are very intricate. His most important landscape paintings depict a human in harmony with nature. Liu paved the way for an academic style that would be further developed by his contemporaries Ma Yuan and Xia Gui.

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