On The Artistic Style Of Liu Songnian Of Traditional Chinese Realistic Figure Painting

Liu Songnian, one of the'Four Artists in the Southern Song Dynasty', created a great number of Chinese paintings which handed down from generation to another. Examples of his paintings include"Landscapes in Four Seasons","West Lake Landscape in spring", three rolls of"Figure of Arhat","Fairy Offering Flowers","Drunken Monk","Four Famous Generals in Southern Song Dynasty","Lu Tong Making Tea"and"People on the Tea Market"etc. This paper focuses on his meticulous figure paintings, studying of which is not only beneficial for the developing of Chinese painting theory but also sheds a light on the practical creation of Chinese painting art.The paper is to discuss Liu Songnian's meticulous figure paintings from his art process, language characteristic and the artistic style.The first part deals with the life and art experience of the painter. By combing the historical and times background, it also analyzes the social, historical and cultural factors contributing to the formation of his art style.The second part expounds the language characteristic from the perspectives of line drawing, shape, color and layout.The third part makes a general analysis of the artistic style, that is, the sign of the times,strong smack of everyday life,healthy and honest image, peaceful and harmonious compass.The paper holds that Liu Songnian has a talent for painting and art expression. His painting is exquisite and line-based but not stereotyped; his technique of expression is multitude; the shape and color is normalized and the layout does not stick to one pattern. All those display the painter's reasonable application of the artistic language and the over-voice by combining the emotion and context of the painting."The image in it is nonesuch". It is safe to say that his meticulous figure painting is the epitome of those in the Southern Song Dynasty, which represents the top level of his times. The research on Liu Songnian's meticulous figure painting is good for us to do justice to the national cultural tradition and also enlightens today's Chinese artistic creation.