Han Gan

Han Gan came from a poor family and, according to tradition, was noticed as a young man by the poet Wang Wei, who helped him study painting. He trained under the court painter Cao Ba and served at the Tang court under Emperor Xuanzong. He painted Buddhist and Daoist figures, but was famed above all for horses, said to have learned from the animals in the imperial stables rather than from earlier paintings. Night-Shining White, a portrait of the emperor's charger, is attributed to him.