The History of Chinese Painting …………………………22 Important Painters and Painting Schools in Chinese History ……………………………………………35 Appreciation

figure of the Zhe School of painting. His important works include Through Mountain Passes, etc al.

Shen Zhou (1427–1509) a Ming Dynasty painter, calligrapher, scholar and poet, founder of the Wu School of Painting, born into a wealthy family near Suzhou, was accomplished in history and the classics, so his paintings revealed China's history, and the orthodox Confucianism in styles of the Yuan dynasty. He is most famous for his landscapes and "boneless" , Mogu(in Chinese, a Gongbi style without outlines) flowers paintings, which followed the style of the Yuan masters.

Important works of his are: Lofty Mt. Lu, and Poet on a Mountaintop.

Tang Yin(1470–1524) a very talented scholar, painter, calligrapher, and poet of the Ming dynasty period, whose life story has become a part of popular folklore, followed and renovated the style of Li Tang in his painting work. Many of his paintings, especially figure paintings, were featured with subjects from Pre-Tang to Song dynasty. He pursued a freestyle of life, and made a living by selling his paintings. his paintings (especially landscapes) reveal a man of both artistic skill and profound insight.

His important works include: Clearing after Snow on a Mountain Pass, and Court Ladies of the Former Shu, etc al.

Qiu Ying (1494? – 1552) a painter, born to a peasant family, who specialized in the gongbi brush technique, studied painting under Zhou Chen in Suzhou, and incorporated different techniques into his paintings. He was notable for his green-and-blue style of landscape painting, and reproduced many antique paintings in the Ming fashion.

Wen Zhengming(1470-1559) a Ming Dynasty painter,

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calligrapher, poet, and scholar. He was regarded as one of the Four Masters of Ming dynasty, who studied painting under Shen Zhou, the founder of the Wu School, and whose style was deeply influenced by his mentor, which carried on the literati painting tradition of the preceding dynasties. He was also very famous for his calligraphy, with the style influenced by Song master Huang Tingjian.

His important works include: Humble Administrator's Garden.

Wu School of Painting was founded by Shen Zhou in city of Suzhou. Under the Yuan dynasty, the scholar painters had practiced with more individualist approach to art, which deviated from Song painting masters. However, in the early Ming period, the dominant style of the Ming court painters was the Zhe School, which followed the Academic Southern Song style. It was not until the capital of Ming Empire was moved from Nanjing(close to Suzhou) to Beijing, that the Wu School of painting began to rise, as with less influence on Suzhou from court painters. The Wu school was well-known for its work done by collaboration of multiple people at gatherings, while combining painting, poetry, and calligraphy on one piece. For Wu painters, painting was a meditation, rather than an occupation.

Four Masters of Ming dynasty includes Shen Zhou,Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying. Except Qiu Ying, they are all scholars, painters, calligraphers, and poets. Among them, Wen Zhengming is the pupil of Shen Zhou. And they all practiced painting around city Suzhou.

Xu Wei (1521–1593) a Ming dynasty painter, poet, writer and dramatist famed for his artistic expressiveness, with a revolutionary painting style that influenced countless later painters, such as Bada Shanren, the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, and the modern masters Wu Changshuo and Qi

Baishi,etc al, is considered as the founder of modern painting in China by many art critics. His paintings features a technique known as “splattered ink brush” by using considerable quantities of ink that are poured onto the painting surface, which needs to done in a very sophisticated manner.

His important works include: Chrysanthemums and Bamboos, Grapes and etc al.

Dong Qichang (1555–1636) a painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art theorist of the late Ming Dynasty, whose work favored expression over likeness of the forms, absorbed elements from earlier Yuan masters such as Wang Meng, whose views on artistic expression had impact on later "individualist" painters. He brought up the theory of Northern School and Southern School of painting, which is very influential on Qing Dynasty artists, as well as collectors.

Four Wangs refers to four renowned painters during the early Qing Dynasty : Wang Shimin, Wang Yuanqi, Wang Hui, and Wang Jian.

Wang Shimin(1592-1680) a landscape painter and an official from the late Ming Dynasty to early Qing Dynasty, grew up in an artistic, scholarly environment, who learned painting and calligraphy at a young age and became one of the Six Masters of painting in his time.

Snow Over Rivers and Mountains is one of his important works.

Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715) a landscape painter of the Qing dynasty, was the grandson of Wang Shimin, who was his mentor in painting. His landscapes followed the model of the Yuan Dynasty artists, especially that of Huang Gongwang, in the use of dry brush strokes, ink washes and color, with a more personal abstract design complemented by the rhythmic flow

of colors. His important works include Mountain Dwelling on a Summer Day, The Wang River Villa, Landscape in the Style of Huang Gongwang.

Right: Court Ladies of the Former Shu by Tang Yin

Left: Clearing after Snow on a Mountain Pass by Tang Yin Ming dynasty Middle: In the silence of a mountain lake by Dong Qichang Ming dynasty Right: The Beauty of Green Mountains and Rivers by Wang Hui Qing dynasty

Wang Hui (1632–1717) a Chinese landscape painter in early Qing Dynasty, one of the Four Wangs, was born into an artist family and later taught by Wang Shimin and Zhang Ke. He and the three other Wangs dominated academic style of painting in China throughout the late Ming and early Qing periods. Though he was criticized for his overly nostalgic attachment to classical Chinese aesthetics without his own creation of art, Wang Hui is considered the best-known of the Four Wangs today. His important works include: The Beauty of Green Mountains,

Rivers and Tree in Autumn and Crows, etc al. Wang Jian (1598-1677) a landscape painter from the late Ming to early Qing dynasty, who was influenced by Dong Yuan. He was known for his precise coloring style of painting, and as one member of the Four Wangs, as well as Six Masters of the early Qing period.

His important works include White Clouds over Xiao and Xiang River.

Yun Shouping (1633 –1690) a painter and calligrapher of the early Qing dynasty, who devoted himself to painting at a early age, was regarded as one of the "Six Masters" of the Qing period. He made a living painting landscapes in his early life, but later shifted his focus on birds and flowers genre. Yun followed the 11th century artist Xu _ Xi's “boneless” , Mogu(in Chinese), style. It applies a technique to portray things without drawing rigidly defined outlines, which makes painting work more vibrant and expressive to display the inner spirit of the painting subjects. Yun not only sought inspiration from the past masters, but was unafraid to try new approaches to enhance his work, such as applying reds and purples colors for being considered too gaudy and avoided by traditional Chinese painters

Important works of his include: Flower and Fruit, Old Trees and Bamboo, Lotus Flower Breaking the Surface, etc al.

Left: Lotus Flower Breaking the Surface by Yun Shouping Right: Willow Tree by Jin Nong

The Six Masters of Early Qing Dynasty known as orthodox masters, continued the tradition of the scholar-painter, especially influenced by the masters of Yuan Dynasty, and following the artist-critic Dong Qichang of late Ming Dynasty. The Six Masters included Yun Shouping Wu Li and the Four Wangs.Their works show the conservative, subtle, and complex side of Chinese painting, in contrast to the vigorous and vivid painting style of their individualist contemporaries.

Zhu Da (1626—1705) also widely known as Bada Shanren, was a painter of ink wash painting and a calligrapher. As a direct offspring of the Ming dynasty prince Zhu Quan, he sought refuge in a monastery when the Manchu army had overthrown the Ming Emperor and later developed a career as a professional painter. His pseudonym Bada Shanren (八大山 人 ) looks like the characters for laugh and cry, which implied his confusion and feelings of grief for the fate of his country. His paintings feature sharp brush strokes which are attributed to the sideway manner by which he held his brush.

Shi Tao (1642–1707) one of the most famous individualist painters of the early Qing years from imperial clan of Ming Dynasty, later became a Buddhist monk. Like Xu Wei, his art was considered as revolutionary, which features his well use of ink washes and bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, as well as the use of negative or white space to suggest distance, and other notable techniques which were recreated on the base of inheriting from his predecessor in the Xieyi genre of painting.

Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou active in the eighteenth-century, who were well known in the Qing Dynasty for rejecting the

orthodox ideas while painting in favor of a style deemed expressive and individualistic.

They each had strong different personalities and most of them had impoverished or troubled backgrounds. They are generally referred to the painters: Wang Shishen, Huang Shen, Li Shan, Jin Nong, Luo Pin, Zheng Xie, Min Zhen, and Gao Fenghan.

Left: Paintings by Zhu Da Middle: Pine Pavilion Near a Spring by Shi Tao Right: Pine Tree, Stone and Wisteria by Li Shan

Huang Shen (1687–1772) was born to a poor family. He excelled at cursive calligraphy and favored a style after Ni Zan. His favored figure painting images covered religious, historic, and common people.

The famous works of his include The Drunk Monk and Shepherd

Su Wu.

Li Shan (1686–1762) a magistrate for a county in Shandong province, and became a noteworthy painter by the age of 16, with painting style influenced by Shitao that had an unrestricted quality.

One of his important works is Pine Tree, Stone and Wisteria. Jin Nong born in 1687, became popular as a painter and calligrapher in his sixties. His paintings of plum blossoms were particularly in demand then, and the “four gentlemen” were his favorite painting subjects. Later, he also painted on Buddhist imagery. Jin was one of the first artists in the Chinese tradition to paint a large number of portraits and did earn money through the patronage of wealthy individuals in Yangzhou, who published his numerous writings as well.

Zheng Xie (1693–1765) also known as Zheng Banqiao once a magistrate at Shandong and resigned later. After that, he focused himself on painting and became noted for his writing of bamboo, orchids, and stones, especially in bamboo. Zheng was also a calligrapher who created a new calligraphy style influenced by his orchid drawings, as well as a poet. He had served at the court of Emperor Qianlong for a short period of time.

Gong Xian (1618–1689) one of the most important of the Eight Masters, and a poet, who Mainly painted on the subject of mountains, with willow trees as another common theme in his work. He lived as a professional painter.

Xu Gu (1824–1896) an army official, and then later a monk, who tended to use the side of the brush in a fluent and bold style in painting. Also a poet, he produced the work Poetry of Xugu Monk.

The Shanghai School is a style of Chinese art present in the

late 19th century and centered in Shanghai. This period immediately followed the defeat of China in the First Opium War by the British Empire, and the further destabilization of the nation by the Taiping Rebellion and the unequal treaties signed with European imperial powers. Shanghai, as an open city, became the first place to receive the Western influence in many aspects, which gave rise to a new middle class which favored a new style of art known as the Shanghai school.

The three hundred years of Chinese art history prior to the advent of the Shanghai School was dominated by the Literati style exemplified in the paintings of Shen Zhou in the 16th century. The Shanghai style marked the first major departure from traditionalist Chinese painting by focusing less on the symbolism valued by the Literati style and aiming at the visual content of the painting itself , which probably got the inspiration for this new style of painting from 18th Century Yangzhou eccentrics painters.

Some important artists of the Shanghai School include Wu Changshuo, Zhao Zhiqian, Ren Bonian, Xie Zhiliu, and Cheng Shifa

Left: Playing the Flute by Ren Yi Right: Hemerocallis by Zhao Zhiqian

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Ren Yi also known as Ren Bonian, a member of the Shanghai School, whose works has influence from both Song Dynasty painters and a individualist style by Zhu Da.He was noted for his bold way of using brushstrokes and color.

Wu Changshuo (1844 –1927) a prominent painter, calligrapher and seal artist of the late Qing Period, was noted for his effort to rejuvenate the flowers and birds painting by Integrating the art of seal to painting.

Zhao Zhiqian (1829–1884) a renowned calligrapher, seal carver and painter and "the leading scholar-artist of his day. " His seal carving had profound influence on the later masters, such as Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi.

Huang Binhong (1865-1955) an art historian and literati painter, was considered one of the last innovators in the traditional literati style of painting and is noted for his freehand landscapes.

The Lingnan School of Painting a style of painting from Guangdong or Lingnan region of China, which was founded in the early 20th century in Guangdong province by Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and and Chan Syu-yan, also known as "The three greats of Lingnan" . It appeared revolutionary and innovative compared to traditional Chinese painting, influenced by Western European painting style and by the early Qing master, Yun Shouping.

In the late 19th century, with the introduction of Western painting styles to China, scholars on painting broke away from conservative thoughts and began creating and promoting new styles of art, which made great ideological progress among social elites and led to the "eclectic fusion of the Chinese and Western style, as well as ancient and modern style" . The Lingnan school advocates the integration of Chinese and

Western paintings, by innovation of Oriental arts, while maintaining traditional Chinese painting techniques. This school of painting gained wide recognition among Chinese peoples, and is regarded as the three pillars of modern Chinese painting, together with Beijing school and Shanghai school. Now the term "Lingnan school of painting" was not simply refers to painters from Lingnan. It refers to a painting style with artists from other areas as well.

Gao Jianfu (1879–1951) a Cantonese artist during World War II, who took training in both western art and Chinese traditional painting, is known for his effort to combine Western and traditional approaches to modernize Chinese traditional painting as a "new national art. " along with his brother Gao Qifeng and friend Chen Shuren. Gao Jianfu and his brother opened the nation's first public galleries for the exhibit and sale of art works, the Aesthetic Bookstore.

Qi Baishi (1864 –1957) a key painter in Beijing School of Painting, and a great admirer of Zhu Da and Xu Wei, learned to paint by himself . He settled in Beijing after 1917 after having traveled to various scenic spots in China. Qi was noted for his playful yet sophisticated style of watercolor works and made a famous point of theory that "paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness" , meaning neither “too much likeness” nor “no likeness” should valued in painting, which represented one of the most important painting features of Beijing School. The subjects of his paintings include animals scenery, figures, toys, vegetables, and almost everything. However, he is best known for his depict of shrimps. He was also good at seal carving and called himself "the rich man of three hundred stone seals" .

Xu Beihong (1895–1953) a renowned Chinese painter from Jiangsu province. He was regarded as one of the first to create oil paintings with epic Chinese themes. In his efforts to create

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a new form of national art, He integrated firm and bold brush strokes of Chinese painting with the precise delineation of form from western painting style. As an art teacher, he advocated artistic conception which is regarded as the soul of Chinese painting, is above technique, and emphasizes the importance of the artist's life experiences.

Lin Fengmian (1900 –1991) a Chinese painter and art professor, is considered a pioneer of modern Chinese painting for blending Chinese and Western styles, though he is more toward western style. He was also an important innovator in the area of Chinese art education.

Appreciation

Technically, Chinese painting, like Chinese calligraphy, is judged by the vitality and expressiveness of the brushstrokes as well as the harmony of the composition. However the contents and meanings of the painting work also matter a lot. Many pieces of the greatest Chinese paintings are passed on to later generations mainly due to this reason. As techniques could be mastered through continuing practicing, while those greatest and most significant work require genius and only to be accomplished under the call of the Heaven.

Chinese painters practice stereotyped brushstrokes for the rocks, mountains, water, leaves, trees, bamboo, grasses, birds and fish, and any number of individual elements. Once the painter has mastered these basic skills, and other important painting techniques and theories inherited from traditional Chinese painting style, he can transcend the tradition and freely express himself through his painting work to reach a new level.

The Shining Light of Night by Han Gan

The Shining Light of Night is a painting created by Han Gan, a painter during the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Minghuang of Tang had an indulgent lifestyle in his late years, that he filled his stables with thousands of horses from everywhere. These horses were not used for battle, but were trained to dance in front of him. The Shining Light of Night portrayed one of the most beloved horses in Emperor Minghuang's stable. However, the horse doesn’t seem happy, nor stay at ease. He is struggling violently, by lifting his front legs and looking up, with his dragon eyes, to somewhere he probably has longed to go. Unfortunately he is firmly tied to a thick pole, whose central position in the painting indicated the direction of the horse’s motion. It seems like a metaphor, that the horse is a talent in the court, with the thick pole as the authority of the court, and the talent person got so frustrated by the constrains of the authority.

Eighty seven celestial people(part) by Wu Zongyuan

Eighty seven celestial people is a manuscript of Baimiao for Taoist mural, which is painted by Wu Zongyuan, who was a very important religion painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. He followed the painting style of Wu Daozi, and painted frescoes on many temples in the city of Kaifeng and Luoyang of China.

The painting depicts the scenes of Taoism deities, worshiping their first ancestor, which include solemn kings, valiant and fierce generals, elegant and beautiful jade maidens, and graceful immortals. There are total 87 characters, which make the painting look full and the scene seem crowded, however, in very good order and display. Since the painter has done a very good job in the composition of the work. The long and smooth lines of thick patterns are used to describe the dense and overlapped clothes and folds. The flowing lines of clothing match with the curved lines of clouds floating in the sky. Different person shows different headdress, with their subtle variation of the facial expression through the motion of their eyes and eyebrows, which conveys the spirit of each character. The overlapped clothing folds are consisted of long and dense parallel lines are drawn with the technique called “String-line” drawing method. In short, this is a very successful work in painting the crowd in one picture.

The preach of Vimalakirti is a Buddhism painting work by Li Gonglin, a painter from Song Dynasty. It is a horizontal hand scroll with the size of 34.6cm in height, 207.5cm in length. Vimalakirti is a famous figure in Buddhism, and this painting depicted the scene of his preaching to the gods, goddesses, monks and Manjusri who was visiting him under the order of Buddha during his own sickness. One lovely goddess was casting the flowers on the eldest disciple( the monk on the right side of the lower part of the picture) of Vimalakirti, who

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fell into embarrassment and hurriedly dusted them off. Then Vimalakirti took the opportunity to explain the tenets of the Mahayana(part of Buddhism teachings) to them that everything is empty (it means unreal or nothing) in Buddhism, and “the color is nothing while nothing is color” . The countenance of Vimalakerti shows with illness while shines with high spirit because of the visit of Manjusri(one of the Major Godess in Buddhism). The painting is done by “Silk-line” drawing method complemented by “Iron-line” drawing technique, which matches with the theme of the painting. And the composition is well-done, together with the proper expressive ink lines, created an atmosphere of solemnity for the Buddhism teaching, touched with a sense of mundane intimacy.

The preach of Vimalakirti by Li Gonglin ink on paper

Children at Play in Autumn by Su Hancheng

Children at Play in

Autumn is a fine brush figure painting finished by the painter Su Hanchen from Song Dynasty. In figure paintings, The idea of “transmitting the spirit through the eye” has been a principle for Chinese painters, ever since it was established by Gu Kaizhi. The key part of this painting is the eyes of the kids, together with their gaze, which connect all the other elements of the painting. The direction of their gaze, dictates their pose, as well as the way of the attire being arranged. Though the headdress of the girl was added to show her gender, and the beautiful garden was carefully depicted to show the family background of the kids. the flowers of the garden still have to stretch out to the direction of their gaze, otherwise, they would become some irrelevant ornaments to the painting as a whole. The intense gaze not only shows the inner spirit of the players, also their characters and their momentary thoughts, all of which revealed a complete world of children.

Magpies and Hare by Cui Bai National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Magpies and hare is a painting hanging scroll belonged to bird and flower genre, painted by Cui Bai from Song Dynasty. “Magpies and hare" was also known as Double Happiness, because magpies are symbols of happiness and good luck. "two magpies" in Mandarin Chinese is pronounced the same as "two happiness" , Shuangxi in Chinese. The painting would be a perfect gift if sent to someone in their wedding ceremony as a way of congratulation .

This painting is a good example for this concept of “Qi” and “Shi” in the composition of Chinese painting. The “Qi” and “Shi” , something circulating around the painting subjects and make connection between them, which are invisible, but can be felt and the relationship of the characters are clearly conveyed to the viewer. The eyes -- the window of the spirit, and the gaze containing the thoughts of the character, the pose - indicating the potential movement of the person, all contribute to the “Qi” and “Shi” . A hare is sitting with its right paw lifted , and its face turned upward looking at two colored bird jabbering happily. One bird is sitting on a branch, bending his body to look back at the hare, while another one is circling in the upper right corner. The viewers may feel they could hear the sound of the bird from the reaction of the hare, as obviously, the hare looked disturbed by the sound, or maybe surprised and glad. Noticed that the space between their gaze is lighter than other areas of the painting. Also so we can tell the wind is blowing, as the trees and the grasses are swept in the same direction as that the hare is turned toward. All these elements created a harmonious and pleasant atmosphere which emphasizes the theme.

Detail from “Xiao and Xiang Rivers” , collection at the Palace Museum Beijing

Scenes along the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, a painting on silk is one of works done by the painting master Dong Yuan from Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom Periods. Dong Yuan's painting features rounded contours of mountains and soft brushstrokes, with horizontally arranged distant landscape format. There are clouds covering the mountains in the background in a distinct shape. Through applying the soft brush strokes for the contour of mountains and breaking them into groups, he makes the serenity of foreground and the vastness of the water more pronounced.

A tiny boat on the right side of middle ground was sailing on the river, contrast to the grandeur of the mountains. On the left center, shows brush works of the trees, complementing the rounded shapes of the mountains tops, which enhances the depth of the middle ground. He also used "face like" patterns in the mountain on the right. This painting is regarded as one of Dong Yuan's greatest works, and was considered as the illustration of the Chinese impressionism in painting.