A Study On Dai Xi 's Painting Style

Dai Xi is a famous painter living in Daoguang and Xianfeng periods. His works Xikuzhai Album of Paintings(《习苦斋画絮》) included his inscriptions of paintings created from 1840 and 1860. Zhejiang Provincial Library has preserved the copy of Xikuzhai Album of Paintings, which chronologically presented Dai Xi’s paintings in the last two decades of his life. Taking the copy as a clue, a textual research was made on the version of Dai Xi’s paintings, based on which Dai Xi preserved works were collected from different channels. By the contrast of the literatures and the paintings, an in-depth study was made on the formation and evolution of Dai Xi’s painting style. Dai Xi’s paintings are elegant and dignified, single but not immature, and dignified but not messy, which is a delicate balance. This painting style is in a concentric circle with his personal temperament and literary accomplishment. In this regard, “Appreciation”(品评)has actually involved in every aspect of Dai Xi’s life and art. This paper was written to explore Dai Xi’s pursuit in painting from the perspectives of the concepts of “magnificence” and “gracefulness” as a pair of opposite styles, and the “heart-to-heart” method was used to expound the works from the perspective of the painter’s living situation. In this way, the painter’s creative ideas on the specific day and his delicate feelings for painting patterns and materials were learned, and at the same time, the evolution process of his painting thoughts in the consecutive 20 years were explored. Through the textual research, the events that excited his painting style were collected and his feelings in the cultural context that had influenced the formation of his painting style were explained. Combining the internal and external perspectives of the painting was helpful to grasp the change trend of Dai Xi’s painting style and to learn about the significance of painting to a painter. It is hoped that this study can properly grasp the essence of literati paintings and the significant tradition of ink paintings, thus to reveal the implicit but universal inner experience of literati painters living in Ming and Qing dynasties.