[1] He was a pupil of Jing Hao, and known as a critical figure in the development of the era's monumental landscape painting.

[2] Guan Tong favored the use of 'axe chopped' brushstrokes, Fu Pi Cun, to depict the angular rocky forms of the northern mountains.

His strong peaks and densely compacted composition represents the northern tradition in its most likely form as scholars understand it today.

Scholars describe Guan's works, along with certain pieces by his teacher Jing Hao, as advanced and impressive pieces for their era, and not works that should be counted as inferior or preliminary to the mature landscape art of the Song.

[5] Twentieth-century artist Chang Dai-chien forged a painting which was successfully passed off as an original by Guan Tong; the painting was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1957 and was assumed, at the time, to be a work by Guan Tong.