Xia Gui (simplified Chinese: 夏珪; traditional Chinese: 夏圭; Wade–Giles: Hsia Kui; fl. 1195–1224), courtesy name Yuyu (禹玉), was a Chinese landscape painter of the Song dynasty. Very little is known virtually his life, and only a few of his works survive, but he is generally considered one of China’s greatest artists. He continued the tradition of Li Tang, further simplifying the earlier Song style to reach a more immediate, striking effect. Together afterward Ma Yuan, he founded the so-called Ma-Xia (馬夏) school, one of the most important of the period.
Although Xia was popular during his lifetime, his reputation suffered after his death, together later than that of all Southern Song academy painters. Nevertheless, a few artists, including the Japanese master Sesshū, continued Xia’s tradition for hundreds of years, until the prematurely 17th century.
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