Chinese artist biography
Cai Han
Chinese artist (1647–1686)
Cai Han (Chinese: 蔡含; 1647–1686), was a Chinese landscape painter.
Greatest Chinese Artists - Pantheon
She was the concubine of the painter Mao Xiang and, with his other concubine Jin Yue, she was commissioned by him with the task of producing paintings as gifts to his guests; they became known as "The Two Painters of the Mao Family".
Names
Cai Han's courtesy name on attaining adulthood was Nüluo (Chinese: 女蘿).
She also went by her art name of Yuanyu (Chinese: 園玉).
Life
Cai was the daughter of a member of staff in the house of Mao Xiang in Rugao. Sometime during the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, an artist from Suzhou called Wu Ruixian (Chinese: 吳蕊仙) sought refuge with Mao. Wu taught Cai to paint and write poetry.[2] Around 1661, Cai became one of Mao's concubines, along with Jin Yue (Chinese: 金鈅).
The two women collaborated on many compositions, earning renown as 'the two artists of the Mao family' (Chinese: 冒氏兩畫史).[2]