Huang Quan (painter)

Huang Quan was highly prolific: the 1120 catalog Xuanhe Huapu alone critiques 349 of his works.

Huang Quan was born in 903, when the Tang empire had irretrievably collapsed into warlordism and civil strife.

Around this time, many painters took refuge in Chengdu, Huang Quan's hometown and the capital of the relatively peaceful Xichuan Circuit, then controlled by the warlord Wang Jian.

(Wang Jian founded the Former Shu empire in 907 after the Tang dynasty ended.)

When Huang Quan was 12, he began his study of painting with the bird-and-flower painter Diao Guangyin (刁光胤), who had arrived in Chengdu from the Tang capital Chang'an in 903.