Fan Qi’s contemporary Gong Xian (see his work nearby) is often described as the quintessential Nanjing painter of the early Qing: a die-hard Ming loyalist who painted elegant, brooding landscapes of layered ink. Fan’s art represents an alternative but equally essential aspect of the local scene: a more accessible, optically dazzling approach to capturing depth, space, light, and color. Some scholars have suggested that Fan’s work represents a creative response to European pictures circulated by Jesuit missionaries, a theory supported by his use of horizon lines and toned water, then uncommon features in Chinese painting. Others have argued that he took inspiration from the heightened realism and visual effects in landscapes of the Northern Song period (960–1127).