Ren Yi (1840-1895), also known as Ren Bonian, was a representative painter of the Shanghai School. Ren was a versatile artist who incorporated numerous styles in his paintings. In particular, the Western techniques of realism and portraiture were adopted and juxtaposed with archaistic stylisation in his portraiture. This painting belonged to a famous local collection, Xiang Xue Zhuang established by the late Dr Tan Tsze Chor, who was famous for his collection of Ren Yi’s figure paintings.
