Ren Yi inherited the painting style from Chen Shouhong and Hua Yan while the influences of Zhu Da (1626-1705), an early Qing artist with many breakthroughs in painting techniques, could be seen in Ren’s artworks. Ren Yi loved to create landscapes and the figures. Ren preferred to sketch. His brushworks were unique and the way he used colors created fresh impressions.  

Ren was a minimalist in his painting pursuits. A few touches could bring out vivid images. His portraits were especially masterful as he used a few light touches to express one’s spirit. His vivid representation in a unique style was influential in the region south of the Yangtze River. With other three artists respectively named Ren Xiong, Ren Xun and Ren Yu, Ren was known as one of the four outstanding artists from the Rens. A lot of his paintings are still available today. His daughter and his son were both artists good at painting and calligraphy as well as poetry and essays. Ren Yi died in 1895 at age 56.