Chinese, 18th century, male.
Active during the reign of the Qing Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796).
Born in Taicang (Jiangsu).
Painter.
Bi Long was a painter of bamboos and landscapes and a disciple of Cao Zhibo. He was also a poet and a famous collector of calligraphy and paintings....
Japanese, 18th – 19th century, male.
Born 1776; died 1853.
Painter. Landscapes, animals.
Nanga (literati) school.
Chikuto was the son of a doctor in Nagoya. At the age of 15, he became the protégé of the rich businessman and collector Kamiya Ten’yu, who was also from Nagoya and through whom he met many artists and studied Chinese pictorial techniques. It was through Tenyu that Chikuto made the acquaintance of the painter Yamamoto Baiitsu (...
[ Chang Ta-ch’ien ; Chang Dai–chien ; hao Dafengtang]
(b Neijiang, Sichuan Province, May 10, 1899; d Taipei, April 2, 1983).
Chinese painter, calligrapher, collector and forger . From an artistic family, he began to paint under the tutelage of his mother, Ceng Yi, and did his first paid painting for the local fortune-teller when he was 12 years old. Zhang’s elder sister gave him his first lessons in the classics. At 15 he embarked on three years of schooling at the Qiujing Academy in Chongqing. In 1917 he went to Kyoto in Japan to join his elder brother Zhang Shanzi (1882–1940). Here, Daqian learnt the art of textile painting, and the brothers collaborated in painting tigers: Shanzi painted the animals and Daqian the surroundings. Shanzi kept a pet tiger in the house, using it as his artistic model. In 1919 Zhang returned to China, where he continued his studies in Shanghai with the scholar Ceng Xi. He also studied with the artist Li Ruiqing (1867–1920) and was exposed to Li’s calligraphy in seal script (...
[Kao Feng-han; hao Nanfu Shanren]
(b Jiaozhou (modern Jiao xian), Shandong Province, 1683; d ?Shandong Province, 1748–9).
Chinese painter, calligrapher, seal-carver, collector and poet. The son of a minor official in charge of local education, Gao developed an interest in poetry, painting and seal-carving in his early youth, when he also began to collect old seals and inkstones. The great poet Wang Shizhen took a liking to him and left instructions before his death that Gao be admitted into the ranks of his disciples. A relative of the poet, Wang Qilei, also provided Gao with some formal instruction in the art of painting, beyond what he could learn from his father, an amateur painter of orchids and bamboo. Gao’s official career did not begin until 1729, when he took up an appointment as assistant magistrate of She xian, Anhui Province. In 1734 a new assignment took him to Taizhou, east of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1736, having become entangled in a legal dispute involving a chief commissioner of the salt gabelle, he was briefly imprisoned; this and his deteriorating health, which resulted in the paralysis of his right hand, inevitably led to his resignation from officialdom....
Chinese, 17th century, male.
Active in Qiantang (Zhejiang).
Born 1645; died 1704.
Painter.
Gao Shiqi was an art connoisseur and collector, and was vice-president of the Bureau of Rites. He wrote two treatises: Jiangcun Xiaoxia Lu and Kangzi Xiaoxia Lu.
[Kao Shih-ch’i]
(b Pinghu County, Zhejiang Province, 1645; d Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 1703). Chinese collector, connoisseur, painter and government official. He grew up in Hangzhou and in 1665 moved to Beijing, where he studied at the imperial academy. In 1687 he attained the highest of his civil-service posts, that of Supervisor of Interpretation in the Hanlin Academy. He was also court painter to the Kangxi emperor (reg 1662–1722). Despite his relatively low rank he was a favourite of the emperor, a position he perhaps exploited to build a finer collection of paintings than would have been possible on his official salary alone. Implicated in a bribery case in 1688, he was dismissed from his official position and retreated to Hangzhou, where he lived in semi-retirement for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he retained the affection of the emperor, with whom he continued to travel until his own death....
[ Yeh Kung-ch’uo ; zi Yufu, Yuhu ; hao Xiaan, Juyuan ]
(b Panyu, Guangdong Province, 1881; d 1968).
Chinese calligrapher, painter, archaeologist, collector, poet and government official. He was born into a wealthy, scholarly family, received a classical education and as a youth of 16 founded a school in Guangzhou (Canton) and a publishing company in Shanghai; at 17 he enrolled in law school at the Imperial University in Beijing. His studies were interrupted two years later by the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, whereupon Ye moved to Wuchang, Hubei Province, and taught history, geography and modern languages for four years. In 1906 he began his official career as a specialist in railways and communications. After 1911, Ye held various positions in the Republican government and was instrumental in the establishment of Jiaotong University in Shanghai; he also served as director of classics for several years at Peking [Beijing] University. After the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), he gave up his government career and devoted himself to the arts and research, although he continued to serve on educational and cultural committees for the rest of his life. In particular, he became involved in the committee to organize the simplification of Chinese characters. In ...
[Li Kung-lin; zi Boshi; hao Longmian, Longmian Jushi; Li Lung-mien]
(b Shucheng County, Anhui Province, c. 1047; d 1106).
Chinese painter and collector. He was from a family of scholar-officials, possibly related to the Li clan who were rulers of the Southern Tang (
Little is known of Li’s life during the 1070s. He was joined by friends in the mountains, and around 1076 went to Nanjing to visit the reformer Wang Anshi (1021–86). In early 1078, Li bought land in Mt Longmian, south-west of Shucheng, and began building a villa that he later depicted in a handscroll painting. A surviving copy of this painting is Shanzhuang tu (‘Longmian mountain villa’; Taipei, N. Pal. Mus.), one scene of which, ‘Hall of Ink Meditation’, alludes to Li’s practice of calligraphy and painting as a means to enlightenment; there are also other versions (Beijing, Pal. Mus. and Florence, I Tatti). In ...
Chinese, 19th century, male.
Active in the second third of the 19th century.
Painter.
Critic, collector, painter and official, Hua Yilun drew his inspiration from Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715). At the same time, to free himself from formulaic academicism, he also travelled widely to rediscover the original source that had inspired the ancients; nature itself. In his theoretical work, the ...
[Hui-tsung]
(b Tianshui, Gansu Province, 1082; reg 1101–26; d Wuguocheng, Yilan, Heilongjiang Province, 1135). Chinese ruler and painter. The last emperor of the Northern Song period (960–1127), he was the 11th son of the emperor Shenzong (reg 1068–85). Huizong is considered to be the only accomplished artist in a line of emperors who all shared an interest in the arts. The fall of the Northern Song dynasty is usually attributed to Huizong’s neglect of his official duties in favour of religious and cultural pursuits. This preoccupation is described in miscellaneous notes of Deng Chun (fl 1127–67) in the Hua ji (‘Painting continued’; 1167) and by Tang Hou (fl 1322) in the Gujin huajian (‘Mirror of past and present painting’; 1320s), as well as in later chronicles such as the Tuhui baojian (‘Precious mirror for examining painting’; preface dated 1365) by Xia Wenyan....
[ Wang Chi-ch’ien ; C. C. Wang ; ming Jiquan ]
(b Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Feb 14, 1907; d New York, NY, July 3, 2003).
Chinese painter, calligrapher, collector, and connoisseur, active in the USA. Wang studied Chinese painting and connoisseurship first with Gu Linshi (1865–1933) in Suzhou and subsequently with Wu Hufan (1894–1968) in Shanghai, where he gained access to major painting collections, including that of the Palace Museum. In 1947 he toured the USA and two years later settled in New York. Thereafter he did much to promote the study of Chinese painting in the USA and was often invited to lecture at universities and to advise museums and collectors. Exhibitions of his work were held in prestigious institutions in both Asia and the USA. In keeping with his study of traditional Chinese paintings, in his early work Wang followed the orthodox masters ( see Orthodox school ) and continued the elegant styles of the later literati tradition ( see China, People’s Republic of §V 4., (ii) ). Living in New York put him in contact with trends in modern Western art. Finding parallels between Western abstract art and traditional Chinese painting with its emphasis on spiritual expression, from ...
[K’o Chiu-ssu; zi Jingzhong, hao Zhouqiu Sheng]
(b Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, 1290; d Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, 1343). Chinese calligrapher, painter, connoisseur and collector. He was appointed connoisseur to the imperial art collection housed at the newly constructed Kuizhang Pavilion in Beijing in 1330, by the Yuan emperor Wenzong (reg 1330–32). He was given the title of Master Connoisseur of Calligraphy, and was responsible for the verification of all the painting and calligraphy that entered the collection. After the death of Wenzong in 1332, Ke retired to Suzhou, where he spent the rest of his life.
Ke owned a large collection of painting and calligraphy and was often asked to authenticate works and write inscriptions. His calligraphy appears on paintings such as Lowland with Trees (handscroll, ink on paper, n.d.; New York, John M. Crawford jr priv. col.) attributed to Guo Xi, Early Autumn (handscroll, ink and colour on paper, 267×1020 mm, n.d.; Detroit, MI, Inst. A.) by ...
[Sansai]
(b Osaka, 1736; d Osaka, 1802). Japanese collector, scholar, poet, painter and calligrapher. As a boy he undertook the study of medicinal herbs at the apothecary’s shop owned by his father and other relatives. According to tradition he began to have an interest in art when he was about five or six and studied with the Kanō-school master Ōoka Shunboku. He also learnt bird-and-flower painting (kachōga) under Kakutei, a Zen priest from Nagasaki. He first met the literati painter Ike Taiga (see Ike family §(1)) when he was 15, and became his pupil. Taiga’s influence is evident in his Bunjinga (literati painting; see Japan §VI 4., (vi), (d)) and also in his calligraphy, in which he excelled. Kenkadō also studied seal-carving with Kō Fuyō, a friend of Taiga, and poetry with Katayama Hokkai. He became one of the most erudite and well-known literati in the region. By profession he was a sake brewer and amassed a fortune, which, however, he forfeited when he incurred the wrath of the authorities. He collected a vast range of objects including calligraphy, old writings and paintings, maps, ceramics, utensils for the ...
(b Tokyo, June 23, 1891; d Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Dec 20, 1929).
Japanese painter and collector. Son of the progressive journalist Ginkō Kishida (1833–1905), he decided to leave school when he was 15, became a Christian and devoted himself to church activities. At the same time he painted and struggled with the decision of whether to live as a Christian or as a painter. In 1908 he entered the Aoibashi Western Painting Study Centre and studied plein-air painting under Seiki Kuroda (1866–1924), exhibiting two years later at the fourth Bunten, a show sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education. From the end of 1911 to early 1912 he was inspired by the work of modern French painters, which he discovered through the magazine Shirakaba (‘White birch’) and through illustrated books. The Self-portrait Wearing a Coat (1912; Tokyo, priv. col., see Hijikata, ed., 1980, pl. 1) was clearly painted under the influence of Vincent van Gogh and Tsukiji Settlement...
[cha Sŏngjung; ho Sanggodang]
(b Sangju, North Kyŏngsang Province, 1696).
Korean painter of the literati school, connoisseur, collector and high official. He passed the primary civil service examination (chinsa) in 1729 and later became a county magistrate. He was recorded under the section on painters in the Tongguk Munhŏn, a 19th-century biographical dictionary of famous people of the Chosŏn period. However, no works by him have yet come to light. According to Sin Yu-han (b 1681), a contemporary member of the literati, Kim would acquire good works of art when available, regardless of their price and often at the expense of his entire family assets. He was recognized as an exacting connoisseur. Though knowledge on the extent of his interest as a collector is limited, his collection included rubbings of such Chinese calligraphic works as Chu Suiliang’s Yan ta shengjiao xu bei (‘The stele of the Yan Pagoda prefaces to the Buddhist scriptures’), executed in regular script, and the ...
Japanese, 19th century, male.
Born 18 May 1831, in Furukawa; died 25 April 1889, in Tokyo.
Painter.
Also known as Kawanabe, Kyosai was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and the first collector of the work of his master and friend. He painted large decorative works, sometimes of European inspiration, and worked mainly in Tokyo....
(b Urawa, nr Tokyo, Feb 12, 1889; d Hayama, Kanagawa Prefect., Aug 14, 1964).
Japanese photographer, painter and patron. The eldest son of a wealthy banker, he studied economics at Keio University but left in 1912 because of mild tuberculosis. By this time he had begun to work seriously as an amateur photographer, becoming a member of the influential amateur group, the Tokyo Society for Photography (Tokyo Shashin Kenkyū-kai), in 1911. His entry, Muddy Sea (see Ozawa, pp. 10–11), won second prize in the Society’s third exhibition of 1912. From 1910 to 1920 he produced photographs on a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, portraits and nudes. Particularly important as a forerunner in the photographic depiction of the nude in Japan is Woman under a Tree (1915; see Shigemori, p. 8).
During the same period Nojima, a keen art lover, extended his relationship with painters and potters such as Rȳusei Kishida, Ryūzaburō Umehara and Kenkichi Tomimoto and became their patron. He opened the Kabutoya Gadō gallery in Kanda, Tokyo, in ...
[Tung Ch’i-ch’ang; zi Xuanzai; hao Sibo, Siweng, Xiangguang, Xiangguang jushi; Wenmin]
(b Shanghai, Feb 10, 1555; d Dec 1636).
Chinese painter, calligrapher, connoisseur, theoretician, collector, and high official.
At the age of 12 Dong Qichang, the son of a local school teacher, passed the prefectural civil-service examination to qualify as a Government Student (shengyuan) and was awarded a coveted place in the prefectural school. Mortified, however, at being ranked below his younger kinsman Dong Chuanxu because of his clumsy calligraphy, from 1571 Dong resolved to study calligraphy in earnest. His initial models were rubbings of works by the Tang-period (618–907
Chinese, 16th – 17th century, male.
Born in Hangzhou (Zhejiang).
Painter.
Shen Shi was a collector of calligraphy and paintings and is known as a bird-and-flower and landscape painter. The Beijing Palace Museum has a signed, dated handscroll by him entitled View of Nine Dragon Mountain...
[zi Jinqing ]
(b Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, c. 1046; d after 1110).
Chinese connoisseur, collector and painter. Son-in-law of the Northern Song emperor Yingzong (reg 1064–8), Wang collected old and modern paintings and writings about painting, thus acquiring a good knowledge of different styles. He also exchanged ideas about classical studies and aesthetics with his friend, the eminent writer and artist Su Shi . He based his landscape paintings on two distinct modes: for the more serious and austere he used the monochrome ink style of Li Cheng , and for the grand and lavish he took up the Blue-and-green (qinglü) manner of Li Sixun ( see Li family §(1) ). Both styles exhibited the then prevalent idea of expressing the artist’s personal interpretation of nature’s force and spirit. Wang frequently included tiny figures of fishermen and gentlemen in his landscapes as an indication of man’s position in nature. He often portrayed misty rivers and valleys with massive mountains in the middle ground and background, and in the foreground heavy, wrinkled rocks, to which cling dry, writhing pine trees. His rivers or lakes usually twist among the rocks and mountains, as for example in ...
