Gu Yun

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Gu Yun (1835–1896) was a Chinese master landscape painter. His courtesy name was Ruopo and his pen name Yunhu. He came from Suzhou and later joined the Shanghai artist community. His paintings draw on classical themes and show the influence of 17th‑century masters like the Four Wangs, with a distinctive use of ink tones. Some critics felt his work lacked vitality. In 1888 he traveled to Japan and stayed at the Qing Embassy; on the way to Kyoto in 1889 a flood nearly forced him to remain in Nagoya, a loss for Japanese art. After his death, his reputation grew, but the best collection of his landscapes in Japan was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake fires. Some works survive, and a printed selection of his paintings appeared in 1926.