Misty Mountains
Kun Can 髡残 (1612-sometime after 1692).
Originally, his surname was Liu 刘 not Kun 髡. He also became known by his designated
name Shixi 石溪 after he became a monk. He also used two literary names, Baitu 白突 and Dianzhu Daoren 电住道人.
He was born in Wuling, which is today's Changde in Hunan Province, but moved to Nanjing later in life
to become the abbot of a monastery on Niushou Shan (Bull's Head or Oxhead Hill) to the south of the city.
He is considered to be one of the Four Monk Masters of the Qing Dynasty with Hong Ren, Zhu Da
and Shi Tao. He was strongly influenced by Wang Meng, a painter who lived in the 1300's
under the Yuan Dynasty. Kun Can uses a dry brush and broad strokes to create a feeling of solidity
whiile maintaining the feeling of the foggy mists that often obscure and soften the mountains.
The scroll dates from the Qing Dynasty, the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi, 1661.