There is a painter with extremely profound traditional skills. His paintings that imitate Wang Shigu, one of the "Four Kings" of the Qing Dynasty, are almost real. This person is Zhang Shiyuan.
Zhang Shiyuan (1898-1959) was a famous calligrapher, painter and connoisseur in Shanghai. After the founding of New China, Zhang Shiyuan was among the first batch of painters at the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy. Zhang Shiyuan is an all-rounder in art. He is not only good at painting, calligraphy, and appreciation, but also has extensive research on epigraphy, porcelain, and stele stickers. He is also a master at repairing ancient paintings. He imitated Wang Shigu's landscape, which is second to none at sea. Zhang Shiyuan has done a lot of research on Wang Shigu, one of the "Four Kings", which is reflected in three aspects: First, he has obtained Shigu's "ability", which is perfect in ink, color, light drop, large and small green; second, he has obtained Shigu's "meaning" "; The third is to obtain the "Zhang" method of Shigu. His handed down works include "Apricot Blossoms and Spring Rain in the South of the Yangtze River", "Stacked Silhouettes and Qinglan Pictures", etc. Calligraphy is good at seal script, official script, running script and cursive script. Cursive script is especially the most exquisite, and Xue Huaisu is the most elegant.
In the early 1930s, the flower-and-bird painter Jiang Hanting came to live in Shanghai. At that time, he lived next to Zhang Shiyuan, so they had a close relationship with each other. Zhang Shiyuan's "Inkstone Mountain Pavilion" has a collection of paintings and calligraphy by famous people of all ages. Jiang Hanting was particularly interested in the strange peaks and rocks in the famous landscape paintings. He believed that adding them to the paintings of flowers and birds could add interest to the pictures, so he consulted Zhang Shiyuan and devoted himself to painting them for nearly two years. In his landscape paintings in 2001, he focused on imitating Shi Guzi, Mei Daoren, Huang Gongwang, and Ni Yunlin, and carefully studied the shapes and chamfering methods of various stones. Jiang Hanting's landscape paintings are also exquisite in brushwork and elegant.
Yu Wenhua, a painter from the Shanghai Painting Academy, worked in Jiuhuatang Jianshan Village in Shanghai in the early 1940s. In 1942, he was introduced to Zhang Shiyuan as his teacher by Jiang Hanting. In 1948, Yu Wenhua wanted to take Zhang Daqian as his teacher in Suzhou. Zhang Daqian said to Yu Wenhua: "Zhang Shiyuan is your teacher. Shiyuan is good at painting stone valleys. I paint Shitao. We are old friends. In order to respect the opinions of my old friends, I must pass the Shiyuan painting." The decision can only be made with Yuan Yuan’s consent.” Yu Wenhua obtained Zhang Shiyuan’s consent. On the day of Yu Wenhua's apprenticeship, it was held at Zhang's residence on Ximen Road, Shanghai. Zhang Daqian invited Zhang Shiyuan to attend. This incident also became a legend in Shanghai painting circles at that time.
In 1947, Song Wenzhi taught at Anting Normal University. Zhu Qizhan recommended Song Wenzhi to become Zhang Shiyuan’s teacher. All expenses for the apprenticeship ceremony, receptions, etc. were borne by Zhu Qizhan.
Qian Jingtang, a maritime connoisseur in the 1930s, admired Wu Hufan and Zhang Shiyuan very much. Wu and Zhang are also good at appraisal. Most of the inscriptions, postscripts and inscriptions on the paintings and calligraphy collected in Qianjingtang were written by Wu and Zhang. Most of the seals used in Qianjingtang collections were made by Zhang Shiyuan. At the age of 30, he compiled and printed two volumes of "Shiyuan Seal", which shows Zhang Shiyuan's seal-making skills.
Zhang Shiyuan was a talented young man with a high reputation for painting. He immediately joined the calligraphy and painting group of Haitijinguan and interacted with Lu Lianfu, with whom he became the most compatible. Wang Hui, who specializes in landscape painting, took a look at the Song and Yuan Dynasties. His techniques of ink, green and light crimson were omnipotent. In 1961, Shanghai Renmei published the "Zhang Shiyuan Landscape Painting Collection". After entering the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, he went to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places to sketch several times with his painting friends, and created a number of innovative works such as "Beigu Mountain", "Ten Thousand Woods", and "Yan Ziling Diaoyutai". Unfortunately, he died of illness three years after entering the painting academy (at the age of 61). Personal appearance is not as good as Dacheng. Shi Yuan has a humble and easy-going nature and is very popular. He spared no effort to support the underachievers, and had more than a hundred disciples, including Song Wenzhi, Yu Wenhua, You Xiaoyun, Gu Zhenle and others who could pass on his painting skills.