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The 3 Most Famous Ren Renfa Paintings, Each One of a Kind
Updated October 2026 · ranked by our popularity score (searches, visits and orders for each work) · 3 works by Ren Renfa in our catalogue
In short
Three Horses and Four Grooms (1318) is the Ren Renfa painting that draws the most eyes; the original belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. After it, the eye goes to Leading Horses out of Stable and A Fat and a Thin Horse. Among the 3 works of Ren Renfa in our catalog, these 3 are the most famous, each a unique original presented with its year, its museum and the reason it endures.
1254 – 1327, China
Most works: The Palace Museum
Top 10 paintings by Ren Renfa, through the gallery's eye
The museums that keep Ren Renfa's originals
The 2 museums that hold the most of the paintings on this page.
| Museum | City | Works by Ren Renfa | Paintings from this list |
|---|---|---|---|
 The Palace Museum |
Beijing | 2 | Leading Horses out of Stable, A Fat and a Thin Horse |
 Cleveland Museum of Art |
Cleveland | 1 | Three Horses and Four Grooms |
Ren Renfa across the years: the unique originals of each
All the dated Ren Renfa originals shown here belong to a single year, 1318: they appear in order of fame.
Works per year
Pick a year to see its originals.
Ren Renfa's paintings: questions for the gallery
What is the single most famous work of Ren Renfa?Reveal the answer
Three Horses and Four Grooms (1318), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Leading Horses out of Stable and A Fat and a Thin Horse come next.
At what age did Ren Renfa create Three Horses and Four Grooms?Reveal the answer
64 years old: Three Horses and Four Grooms dates from 1318, and Ren Renfa was born in 1254.
How many works by Ren Renfa are known?Reveal the answer
Our catalog holds 3 works by Ren Renfa.
Where can the most famous Ren Renfa originals be seen?Reveal the answer
Mostly in The Palace Museum (Beijing) and Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland). The museum table above lists them all.
What Ren Renfa originals can I see at the The Palace Museum?Reveal the answer
Leading Horses out of Stable and A Fat and a Thin Horse: the The Palace Museum, Beijing holds 2 of the works on this page.
Ren Renfa: a portrait of the artist
Ren Renfa: Artist and Official
Ren Renfa was an expert of irrigation works, artist, and a government official of the Yuan dynasty. Born in Qinglong Town, Songjiang, he also served as a hydrological engineer, where his work included dredging an area in what is now Beijing to improve the water supply and leading a team to build embankments after the Yellow River burst its banks.
Notable Works
His paintings include subjects such as horses, people, flowers, and birds. One prominent work is Chu Yu Tu (Coming out of the Stable), a painting on silk with color that depicts three officials of the royal stables leading four horses out of a stable. The figures in this work are dressed in Tang style costumes.
Another significant work is Five Drunken Princes Returning on Horseback, a two-metre scroll depicting five princes on horseback with four attendants. This piece includes Li Longji, who later became the Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty. Ren Renfa also produced the work Fat and Lean Horses, which contains an inscription explaining that the fat horse represents the self-satisfied, wealthy official while the lean one represents the humble, poor, self-deprecating official.