Ma Yuan, << MAH yoo ehn, >> was the most famous member of an honored family of painters. With his fellow painter Xia Gui (also spelled Hsia Kuei), Ma Yuan produced some of the greatest landscape paintings in ink during the early 1200’s in the Southern Song (Sung) period in China. Ma Yuan’s typical compositions are severely simple, with a framework of strong diagonal lines usually developed in one corner. His foregrounds may contain a few boldly silhouetted forms–rocks, a mountain path, a dramatically angular pine tree. The rest of the scene is largely mist, through which riverbanks or silhouetted faraway peaks can be seen.
Ma Yuan was born in Hezhong in Shanxi province. His birth and death dates are unknown.
