Orphaned at a young age, Gao spent much of his childhood following Jianfu, learning the techniques of Ju Lian before traveling to Tokyo in 1907 to study Western and Japanese painting.

While abroad, Gao joined the revolutionary organization Tongmenghui to challenge the Qing dynasty; after he returned to China, he published the nationalist magazine The True Record, which later fell afoul of the Beiyang government.

In his painting, Gao blended traditional Chinese approaches with foreign ones, using Japanese techniques for light and shadow as well as Western understandings of geometry and perspective.

Gao taught numerous students, including Chao Shao-an and Huang Shaoqiang; he was particularly close to Zhang Kunyi, with whom he may have been romantically involved.

[8] While Jianfu was enrolled at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts,[9] Gao became a student of Tanaka Raishō;[8] he appears to have also drawn influence from artists such as Takeuchi Seihō and Hashimoto Kansetsu.

[11] Gao Qifeng became a teacher at the Nanhai Middle School, while also learning psychology and sociology, holding that the truth, goodness, and beauty of art could better address the human condition with insight into the problems of society.

[9] This nationalist magazine, subsidized in part by the new government,[16] published seventeen issues between June 1912 and March or April 1913, with Gao Qifeng as the editor-in-chief.

[9] Gao – writing with Xie Yingbo and Ma Xiaojin – published an article in 1913 implicating Provisional President Yuan Shikai in the assassination of nationalist leader Song Jiaoren.

[18] As the decade continued and China's nascent democracy devolved into corruption and warlordism, Jianfu grew disenchanted with politics; the art critic Li Yuzhong suggests that Qifeng was likely influenced by his brother in this regard.

[20] Through the 1920s, Gao gained increasing recognition for his artwork, and he was frequently featured in The Young Companion, a bilingual pictorial magazine published in Shanghai.

[22] Around 1929, Gao fell ill with pneumonia[23] and removed himself from the city to recover, being admitted to the Zhujiang Nursing Home on Ersha Island in the Pearl River.

[26] Gao's body was subsequently escorted by his student Zhang Kunyi to Guangdong, where he was interred at the Christian Cemetery in Henan; the national government contributed 2,000 yuan (equivalent to ¥197,000 in 2019) to cover expenses.

[14] Zhang pushed for the state to give Gao recognition,[27] finding support from numerous prominent politicians, including Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, and Yu Youren.

They petitioned for Gao to be reinterred closer to the national capital in Nanjing, arguing that he deserved the recognition due to his contributions to the country as well as his artistic skill.

[j][28] Gao is recognized, together with his brother Jianfu and fellow Ju Lian student Chen Shuren, as a founder of the Lingnan School of painting.

[21] All three shared similar backgrounds, and drew on Western influences in their art,[14] believing that synthesis was necessary to preserve Chinese tradition while creating a new style of "national painting" suited for modern times.

[29] Among Gao's students were Zhang Kunyi, Zhou Yifeng, Ye Shaobing, He Qiyuan, Rong Shushi, Huang Shaoqiang, and Chao Shao-an.

[31] Another brother, Jianseng, travelled to Japan in 1911, and as with Qifeng and Jianfu developed a style that blended Japanese, Western, and traditional Chinese art.

[9] Cai Dengshan writes that, after Gao's death, Zhang was so distraught that she mixed her tears with powder to paint plum blossoms, using her own blood for the sepals; he attributes this to filial piety.

"[m][40] Cai Dengshan agrees, writing that, where Jianfu employed a majestic and innovative approach and Chen's style was dignified and elegant, Qifeng balanced the strengths of both of his peers.

[14] Regarding his approach to painting, Gao narrated: I [...] picked out the finest points of Western art, such as the masterful strokes of the pen, composition, inking, coloring, inspiring background, poetic romance, etc.

[2] After his interactions with the nihonga school, Gao began to blend traditional Chinese approaches to painting with foreign ones, sketching his subjects before rendering them with ink and colour.

[1] Gao's later works employed a more freehand approach,[8] with the paintings produced after his illness being described as direct and straightforward, with reduced narrative and little diversity in colour.

[8] Croizier describes Gao as the Lingnan School's premiere painter of tigers, employing a painstaking realism that implies a deep absorption of Meiji-era techniques,[46] though he also showed great skill with large birds.

[8] Several works depict moonlit nights and winter snows, which Cai Dengshan describes as often having a "delicate, graceful, crystal clear, and clean charm".