Li Yishi - Chinese Art and Culture in Scotland

Li Yishi 李毅士 (1886-1942) moved to Scotland in 1907 to study oil and watercolour painting, drawing, anatomy and costume history at the Glasgow School of Art until he graduated in 1912. Li was the first Chinese student to graduate in Fine Arts in the UK. Subsequently he studied mathematics, physics and chemistry at the University of Glasgow until 1915. Li’s studies had a deep impact on our perception of beauty: the movements of the optic nerves, the movements of the subject, the implication of meanings revealed through constant viewing.

In 1918 he was hired as an instructor in the Painting Research Society in Beijing. He witnessed the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the influential cultural and anti-imperialist political movement in modern China. He was involved in the foundation of many painting societies around that time. He also taught Western painting at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts.

Li Yishi adopted Chinese painting as his medium, however added Western influences to his artworks. Chinese painting typically uses water-based ink and pigments on paper or silk. Two techniques commonly used in Chinese painting are xieyi 寫意 (spontenous) or gongbi 工筆 (meticulous detail) styles. Xieyi translates into ‘writing’ meaning freehand paintings, that feature exaggerated forms and is usually to express artist emotions in landscape paintings. Gongbi translates directly into English as ‘working pen,’ and is used for portraits or narrative subjects, requiring detailed subjects and rich colours.

Li Yishi adopted the gongbi style as he was good at using fine brushwork to render details in his paintings.

In 1929, Li Yishi painted the portrait of his co-worker, Chen Shizeng. Li Yishi paints in a Classical Realist style and captures the whole body of the sitter. In this painting, Li underlines the relationship between the figure and still-life objects in the background. The folding fan and other objects depicted, indicate Chen’s reputation as a widely respected artist and classical aesthetic education. The portrait’s background is a stone rubbing from a Han dynasty painting whilst the foreground includes ceramic vases- both from Chen’s favourite collections.

Eternal Regret Song Painting is a visual representation of the poem ‘The Song of Everlasting Sorrow’ in modern China. The painting was first shown at the National Art Exhibition in Shanghai, and subsequently published as an illustrated book in 1932.

Selected bibliography

Ben Uri Research Unit. “Li Yishi.” Accessed 16 July 2023, https://www.buru.org.uk/record.php?id=1753.

“Chapter of Change.” ChinaCulture.org. Accessed 16 July 2023, http://en.chinaculture.org/info/2012-12/29/content_449185.htm.

Clarke, David. Art and Place: Essays on Art from a Hong Kong Perspective (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996), 216–217, 222.