Freehand Figure Paintings or Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua (写意人物画)

Freehand Figure Paintings or Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua (写意人物画) are one part of Chinese Figure Paintings. I explained Xie-yi Hua (写意画) very briefly in the post "Gong-bi (工筆) and Xie-yi (写意)" before. As the name indicates Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua are the figure paintings made in  Xie-yi style (very roughly equal to Freehand) . Shi Nu Hua (仕女画), as explained in my last post, are also a part of Chinese Figure Paintings but they depict only Noble Woman Figures while Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua  have no such discrimination and have both women and men and noticeably more old women and old men employed as objects. Shi Nu Hua are Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua when they are made in Xie-yi (写意) style. When they are made in Gong-bi (工筆) style (very roughly equal to Meticulous Style) they are "Gong-bi Ren Wu Hua (工筆人物画).



The two Xie-yi Ren Wu Hua shown below are well known (very old) and high quality ones. The features of the old men's figures are short and fat (chubby) with a large head, short neck, flat nose and small eyes like a bulldog. The features of the young elegant women's figures in Shi Nu Hua (仕女画) are usually slender with a small head, comparatively long neck, not too high not too flat nose, big eyes and small mouth. You may like a bulldog as well as an elegant woman and feel pleased when you see them. This pleasing feeling comes from the technique of well considered and controlled exaggeration and deformation.

sptt