Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Wen Boren
Ming landscape painter from Suzhou, nephew of Wen Zhengming, who never held office and painted dense, finely detailed landscapes after Wang Meng
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 Decheng · Hao Wufeng · Hao Sheshan Laonong
Wen Boren, courtesy name Decheng, styled Wufeng and also Baosheng and Sheshan Laonong, came from Changzhou county in Suzhou and was a nephew of Wen Zhengming. He never held office and lived by painting. He painted landscapes and figures, and his landscapes, modelled on the Yuan master Wang Meng, are densely built and finely brushed, giving him a manner of his own within the Wen family. His hanging scroll The Isle of Fanghu, dated 1563 and now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, shows the immortals' island rising from the waves amid clouds and half-hidden halls. A set of four landscapes on themes beginning with 'ten thousand', including Ten Thousand Ravines and Wind in the Pines, is in the Tokyo National Museum.
Life and times
Dates 1502 CE–1575 CE