Fei Danxu, Boating under the Willows

Fei Danxu (1801, 1850) was a leading Chinese painter of the late Qing dynasty, renowned for his elegant figure paintings, particularly of beautiful women (meiren) rendered in a refined, lyrical style. He was a native of Wucheng, Zhejiang province, and is celebrated for his delicate brushwork and poetic sensibility that captured the grace and melancholy of feminine subjects. Works such as 'Boating under the Willows' exemplify his mastery of combining landscape and figure painting with a gentle, atmospheric quality.