Wang Shimin
Wang Shimin (1592-1680) was a native of Taicang, Jiangsu (now Jiangsu). His courtesy name was Xunzhi, his nickname was Yanke, and his later nickname was Xilu Old Man. Grandson of Wang Xijue. Born into a family of officials in the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen served as minister of Taichang Temple in his early years, so he was also called "Wang Fengchang". He is a painter of poetry, calligraphy and painting, especially good at painting landscapes. He studied under Dong Qichang when he was young, and copied famous works from the Song and Yuan Dynasties in his family collection, taking Huang Gongwang as his master. Wang Hui and Wu Li came out of his sect, and Sun Wang Yuanqi received his guidance. Later generations collectively called him the "Four Kings" together with Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi. Together with Wu Li and Yun Shouping, they were also called the "Six Families of the Qing Dynasty". He founded the "Loudong School" of landscape painting and ranked first among the "Four Kings" of painters in the early Qing Dynasty. He also works as a scribe and can write poems. His works include "Xitian Collection", "Xilu Painting Postscript", "Fulan Warm Hui Picture", etc.
Wang Jian
Wang Jian (1598-1677) was a Chinese painter in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The characters are Yuanzhao and Yuanzhao, and their names are Xiangbi and Ranxiang nunnery master. A native of Taicang, Jiangsu. The grandson of Wang Shizhen, a wealthy collector, once served as the magistrate of Lianzhou and was known as Wang Lianzhou. He is good at landscape painting. He learned from Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Huang Gongwang and Wang Meng. He often discussed with Wang Shimin and developed and changed it to form his own style. In his paintings, he makes good use of a center-point pen, and uses hemp to draw mountains and rocks. He can also paint blue and green landscapes, and he has mastered the technique of drying and dyeing, making the painting harmonious and simple. Wang Jian's landscape paintings had a great influence in the Qing Dynasty. He was as famous as Wang Shimin, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi, Yun Shouping, and Wu Li. He was also known as the Four Kings and Wu Yun or the Six Paintings in the Early Qing Dynasty, and became the authentic painter in the painting world. There are "Dream Picture", "Autumn Forest Mountain Color Picture" and "Autumn Mountain Picture" handed down from generation to generation. He is the author of "Collection of Ranxiang'an" and "Postscript of Paintings of Ranxiang'an".
Wang Hui[huī]
Wang Hui (1632-1717), a painter of the Qing Dynasty. The courtesy name is Shigu, and the nicknames are Gengyan Sanren, Jianmen Woodcutter, Wumushanren, Qinghui Laoren, etc., from Changshu, Jiangsu Province. My ancestors were all good at painting for five generations, and my father, Wang Yunke, specialized in painting landscapes with an elegant style. Influenced by his family since childhood, Wang Hui loved painting. He first became a teacher of Zhang Ke from Tongli, specializing in copying the landscape paintings of Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, he was appreciated by Wang Jian and was accepted as his disciple, teaching him reading and calligraphy. He also studied under Wang Shimin. Later, together with Wang Shimin, Wang Jian and Wang Yuanqi, they were called the Four Kings. Together with Wu Li and Yun Shouping, they were also called the Six Families of the Early Qing Dynasty. Although his landscape paintings were based on Lingu, he did not copy them exclusively. Wang Wei's snow scene, Li Cheng's cold forest, Dong Yuan's Pingluan Yuanzhu, Juran's Xiaosi in Qiushan, Wang Shen's fishing village Xiaoxue, and Mi's father and son's Yunshan Misty Rain and the works of Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Wang Meng and Ni Zan of the Yuan Dynasty were all the objects of his copying. Not only does he have a deep foundation in traditional techniques, he is also able to master them all, and he is good at combining skills. But he is not completely bound by established methods, and pays more attention to sketching. He penetrated all the painters and used Southern Song Dynasty brush and ink to convey the Northern Song Dynasty hills and valleys, creating a graceful and colorful style and appearance.
Wang Yuanqi
Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715), also known as Maojing, also known as Lutai and Shishi Taoist, was known as one of the "Four Kings" in the early Qing Dynasty. The grandson of painter Wang Shimin. I have been copying the original works of famous artists from the Song and Yuan Dynasties since I was a child, and I have been at the feet of the ancients my whole life. I was recognized as a master of copying the ancients at that time. "Smoke Floating Far Away" is his masterpiece. The layout of the peaks and mountains, the use of brushes on the mountains, rocks and trees are all based on Huang Gongwang, and the content is empty and lacks business. But the writing is skillful and has a natural and unrestrained beauty. Wang Shimin
Poem Xunzhi, also known as Yanke, Wuzhai, Xitian master, Xitian old man, Xitian old man, Ouxie Taoist, Guicun old farmer, Daoxiang'an, Xilu old man, a native of Taicang, Jiangsu Province, Xijue Sun. In the 29th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen initially served as Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, and was known as "Wang Fengchang". After entering the Qing Dynasty, he stopped serving and went into seclusion. Yanya is a natural history scholar, a master of poetry and prose, and a good calligrapher. His regular script is derived from "Ode to a Dead Tree". His official script follows the Qin and Han Dynasties, and his eight-eighth list ranks first in modern times. The family has a rich collection of calligraphy and paintings, copying famous works from various houses in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and trying to select 24 paintings from the ancient works that are of the highest quality, and make them into abbreviated editions and put them into a huge volume as a model. Moreover, because he studied ancient painting under the guidance of Dong Qichang when he was young, and combined with his temperament and personality factors, he only used natural scenes as the highest criterion for painting, emphasizing that "every tree and stone has its original origin."
When he was young, he studied painting theory with Dong Qichang and Chen Jiru. When he studied the landscape paintings of Huang Gongwang, he especially discovered the secrets. In his later years, he became more and more deified.
In the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1669), he passed the imperial examination and passed the Jinshi examination the following year. After turning 40, he served as an examiner for the Shuntian Township Examination, and later served as county magistrate of Ren County, Hebei for four years. At the age of forty-five, he went to Beijing and accepted Kangxi's "trial strategy" examination in the Baohe Hall, serving as a clerk. The next year, he was promoted to the Ministry of Punishment and was promoted to Shizhong. Later, he was transferred to the Ministry of Rites as the palm seal. He was also ordered to be appointed as Zhongyun of Youchunfang. He entered the Zhinan Study Room and served successively as a minister, a bachelor, a minister of the Prince's Mansion, and a lecturer of Jingyan, until he served as a lecturer. The left minister of Hubu was therefore called "Wang Sinong". In the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (AD 1715), Wang Yuanqi died of illness in his official residence in Beijing at the age of seventy-four. The body was buried in his hometown of Taicang. Wang Yuanqi's artistic achievements were mainly in landscape painting. The people who inspired and taught him the most were Wang Shimin, Wang Jian and his third uncle Wang Zhuan. Wang Shimin once personally drew the "Landscape Album of Imitations of Famous Song and Yuan Masters Following Li Cheng" for him to study. He also gave him the famous paintings of Dong Yuan, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng, Shen Zhou, etc. from his family collection to copy and study.
Wang Yuanqi’s works are basically based on ancient works. He particularly admired Huang Gongwang and believed that he had acquired Huang Gongwang's "sweaty feet". He was proud of it and imitated it, striving for imitation but lacking creativity. However, his profound pen and ink skills cannot be completely denied. He once inscribed a picture of "Autumn Mountains Sunny and Cool" with "Vajra at the end of the pen", which means that his pen is powerful and powerful, and his energy penetrates the back of the paper, and his energy is getting stronger and stronger. At that time, someone wrote about witnessing Wang Yuanqi's painting process:
Starting in the morning, he unfolded the paper and examined it for a long time. I use light ink to outline the outline of the painting, and then I can accurately distinguish the outline of the forest gully, the peaks, the stone layers, and the trunks of the trees. Every time you make a move, you must review it repeatedly. It was already dusk, so I put down my writing and rested. On the next day, take the front roll and lightly dye it, use light ocher and add a little garcinia to render the rocks, then use a small iron to dry the painting over low heat, then use an ink pen to dry-erase the stone bones and sparse wood leaves. Then he used dark green water to slowly and sparsely render the yin and yang to the back, then dried it with an iron, then outlined it again, then dyed it and then dotted it, from light to thick, from thin to dense. It took half a month to complete the painting.
This multi-layered rendering, with bones and flesh, integrated and rich in beauty, was developed by Wang Yuanqi’s eclectic approach to the painting techniques of Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, Wu Zhen and Dong Qichang. of. Many people in the Qing Dynasty spoke highly of his brushwork skills, with some praising him as "ripe but not sweet, raw but not astringent, light but thick, solid but clear". Some people say that he has "mellow smell and vitality, which is higher than other families." Yao Nai, a famous poet of the Tongcheng School, once wrote a poem "Inscribed on Lutai Landscape", describing the creative layout of Wang Yuanqi's landscape paintings, and feeling that "this painting is the only one I have a special affection for." This shows that Wang Yuanqi's landscape paintings have the characteristics of "lying and traveling", which is in line with the aesthetic taste of ordinary literati and officials at that time.
Wang Yuanqi is the author of theoretical works "Rain Window Essay" and "Lutai Inscription Painting Draft". Among them, the discussion on the opening and closing of painting composition, brush and ink coloring and other techniques are mostly based on the experience of long-term artistic practice. It belongs to the laws of art and is quite valuable. However, he inherited Dong Qichang's orthodox ideas of literati painting, described the Zhejiang School in the late Ming Dynasty as an "evil sect", and belittled the innovative people such as Shi Tao and Gong Xian at that time, which reflected his retro-conservative thoughts and sectarian views.
Because Wang Yuanqi had a certain political status, more and more people directly and indirectly learned his landscape painting style, and even formed a school - the Loudong School, also known as the Taicang School. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was associated with The Yushan sect with Wang Hui as the center kept pace with each other. The main painters include: Wang Yuanqi’s brother Wang Yu, nephew Wang Su, disciples Huang Ding, Tang Dai, Wang Jingming, Jin Yongxi, Li Weixian, Cao Peiyuan, Hua Kun, Wen Yi, and later great-grandson Wang Chen, nephew Wang Sanxi, and Sheng Tua Shi, Huang Jun, Wang Xuehao, etc. had a great influence. Wang Yuanqi's representative works include "Imitation of Juran Mountains with Clouds Rising", "Imitation of Hongguzi Landscape", "Imitation of Huanggong's Landscape", "Imitation of Fangshan Green Landscape", "Poetic Pictures in Paintings", "Imitation of Huanggong's View of Autumn Mountains". "Picture of Smoke and Trees in Thatched Cottage", "Endless Picture of Clouds and Mountains", "Picture of Rising Sun on Summer Mountain", "Picture of Clear Rivers and Mountains", "Picture of Forest Gorges Filled with Spring", "Picture of Clouds and Mountains", "Picture of Green Forest in Flat Forest" "wait.