Wu Xizai 吳熙載 (1799-1870)

The Chinese seal artist Wu Xizai was born in Yizheng, Jiangsu province. He was a painter, calligrapher, and seal carver. He was a student of the calligrapher Bao Shichen, “who in turn studied with Deng Shiru. According to Wu himself, he began to study Han seals at the age of fifteen; after fifteen years, he discovered the seal engraving of Deng Shiru and devoted himself to learning from Deng … His seals in white characters (baiwen) tended to follow the monumental style of Han-dynasty sinuous seal script. His red-character impression (zhuwen) seals, however, tended to emphasize the flavor of the pliant brush. In his knife techniques, he combined thin and thick strokes to achieve a more varied effect.”

• Pinyin: Wú Xīzài
• Wade-Giles: Wu Hsi-tsai

Seals shown are not to scale.