Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Wang Hui
Changshu landscape painter, trained by Wang Jian and Wang Shimin, who as a commoner directed the painting of the Kangxi emperor's Southern Tour scrolls and then went home
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 Shigu · Hao Gengyan Sanren
Wang Hui, courtesy name Shigu, came from Changshu. When he was about twenty the painter Wang Jian, visiting Mount Yu, was struck by his work and took him to Taicang to meet Wang Shimin, who lodged him at his estate, set before him the family's paintings from the Tang onward and took him travelling to see private collections; after nearly twenty years of this training he was a master. Summoned to Beijing as a commoner under Kangxi, he directed the painting of the scrolls of the emperor's Southern Tour, sketching the plan and assigning sections to a team of painters. When the work was done the emperor offered him office, but he declined and went home with rich gifts. He held that a painter should use Yuan brushwork for Song compositions and give them the spirit of the Tang, and admirers said the Northern and Southern schools met in him. He died in 1717 at eighty-six; he is counted among the Four Wangs, and his followers formed the Yushan school.
Life and times
Dates 1632 CE–1717 CE