Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Huang Shen
Ninghua painter who turned from fine-line figures to a rough cursive brush, selling portraits of immortals, fishermen and beggars in Yangzhou
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 Gongshou · Hao Yingpiao
Huang Shen, born Huang Sheng, with the courtesy names Gongshou and Gongmao, came from Ninghua in Fujian. His father died when he was young, and he took up painting to support his mother. He first painted figures in the fine manner of Shangguan Zhou of the same region, but later brought the strokes of cursive calligraphy into his painting, producing a rough, swinging line of his own. He went to Yangzhou several times to sell his work, keeping company with Zheng Xie and Li Shan, and painted immortals, historical figures, fishermen, woodcutters and beggars as well as landscapes and flowers. He also wrote poetry, collected as the Jiaohu shichao, and Zheng Xie praised him in verse for catching the spirit of his subjects rather than their mere likeness. He spent his last years back in Ninghua and is counted among the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.
Life and times
Dates 1687 CE–c. 1770 CE (death by another account c. 1772)