The painter Li Fang-ying is known to historians of Chinese art because his name is usually included among the "Eight Eccentrics of Yang-chou, " active in the mid-eighteenth century. Since Li was not an artist of the first rank, late twentieth century scholars have tended to dismiss him altogether. The present study achieves the following: a reconstruction of Li Fang-ying's biography through the use of both familiar and heretofore-unused source materials; a catalogue, as complete as is presently possible, of Li's work; together with new translations of all inscriptions (most of them the only translations in a Western language); an assessment of Li's work on the basis of style, dating, and problems of authenticity; an interpretation-analysis of Li's work as it relates to his life and times and to his thought and beliefs; an outline of Li's influence on later artists; and an evaluation of Li's place both among the "Eight Eccentrics of Yang-chou" and in the history of Chinese painting. This research, much of it pioneering, together with my original analysis of the findings and of the art, permit for the first time a fair and proper evaluation of Li and of his work, and for the first time establish him as an interesting and even important figure (though this study re-confirms that Li's standing is not in the first rank of Chinese painters). This study further re-examines the term "Eight Eccentrics of Yang-chou" and confirms its validity as a rubric in the history of Chinese painting. That Li Fang-ying indeed belongs to this group is also established. This study as a whole, thus, constitutes a contribution to scholarship in the history of Chinese art in the eighteenth century.