Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Qian Xuan
Huzhou painter and Song loyalist who refused office under the Yuan and was one of the Eight Talents of Wuxing with Zhao Mengfu
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 Shunju · Hao Yutan · Hao Zhaxi Weng
Qian Xuan, courtesy name Shunju, styled Yutan and in old age Zhaxi Weng, came from Wuxing, present-day Huzhou in Zhejiang. A provincial graduate of the Jingding era under the Southern Song, he took no office after the dynasty fell and lived at home among poetry, calligraphy and painting; early in the Yuan he was named with Zhao Mengfu among the Eight Talents of Wuxing. He painted landscapes in the blue-and-green manner and flowers, birds and figures in fine line and colour, often adding poems of his own. Surviving works include Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains (Shanghai Museum), Eight Flowers (Palace Museum, Beijing) and Squirrel on a Peach Branch (National Palace Museum, Taipei).
Life and times
Dates Dates uncertain (by one account 1239–1301); active in the late Song and early Yuan