Ren Bonian

Ren Bonian (Ren Yi, 1840–1895) was a leading painter of the Shanghai School, the loose community of artists who reshaped Chinese painting for a newly commercial, cosmopolitan city. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the son of a rice merchant who also painted portraits, he moved to Shanghai after his father's death and built a career there executing figures, birds-and-flowers, and portraits with unusual speed and bravura. He is grouped with Ren Xiong, Ren Xun and Ren Yu as one of the "Four Rens," though his own reputation eclipsed theirs.