Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Wang Zhao
Mid-Ming painter from Xiuning in Huizhou who worked in the bold Zhe school manner of Dai Jin and Wu Wei, painting landscapes and figures
A desk holds an unrolled sheet bearing three bold black ink strokes, with a rack of many brushes above it, a stone ink slab and ink stick, a porcelain bowl, a red lacquer box, a dish of red seal paste and a paperweight; a small seated figure shows through a round window onto bamboo.
Also known as Zi Dechu · Hao Haiyun
Wang Zhao, courtesy names Dechu and Kezhong, styled Haiyun, came from Xiuning in Huizhou, in present-day Anhui, and was active in the middle Ming; little is recorded of his life. Later accounts of Ming painting place him in the line of Dai Jin and Wu Wei, the Zhe school with its vigorous brushwork and wash, and say he painted landscapes and figures. He is said to have likened his own brushwork to clouds rolling over the sea, and took Haiyun, sea clouds, as his sobriquet. Among his surviving works is a hanging scroll of Tao Yuanming admiring chrysanthemums in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and other paintings of his are in the Tokyo National Museum.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; mid-Ming painter