Northern Song Dynasty, Yi Yuanji, "Ripe Fruit and Two Birds" scroll

Ink and color on silk, 41.8cm × 288cm, Private collection

Yi Yuanji, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Qingzhi. His birth and death dates are unknown, but he was active during the reigns of Emperor Renzong and Emperor Yingzong. He was from Changsha, Hunan Province. Initially, he specialized in painting flowers, birds, bees, and butterflies. After seeing the works of Zhao Chang, he felt he could not surpass them and felt ashamed to be second only to him, so he turned to painting monkeys. It is said that he once lived deep in the mountains to observe the activities of animals, and his paintings of plants and animals were extremely vivid and lifelike, full of vitality. He often inscribed "Painted by Yi Yuanji, Assistant Instructor of Changsha" on his paintings, signing them among the trees and rocks. In the first year of the Zhiping era of Emperor Yingzong of the Northern Song Dynasty (1064), the Xiaoyan Hall was built in the Jingling Palace, and Yuanji was summoned to the palace to paint screens of flowers, rocks, birds, and animals, all of which were remarkably lifelike.

Yi Yuanji's painting talents were multifaceted. Besides being skilled in painting flowers, birds, and monkeys, he could also paint cats, dogs, tigers, wolves, and various other plants and animals, all of which he created in a unique and innovative way, surpassing his predecessors.