Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Wang Zhenpeng
Yuan painter from Yongjia, favoured by Emperor Renzong, known for finely ruled pictures of palaces and boats
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 Pengmei · Guyun Chushi
Wang Zhenpeng, courtesy name Pengmei, came from Yongjia (modern Wenzhou, Zhejiang). Emperor Renzong of Yuan admired his work and gave him the title Guyun Chushi, 'Recluse of the Solitary Cloud'; he served as a registrar in the Imperial Library and rose to a battalion command in the grain-transport service. He is best known for ruled-line painting: palaces, pavilions, boats and furnishings drawn with fine, exact ink lines, and he is regarded as the principal Yuan practitioner of the genre. Surviving works include Dragon Boat Regatta on Jinming Lake and several versions of Dragon Boats, one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei; the ink-line handscroll Boya Playing the Qin in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is attributed to him. Wei Jiuding studied ruled-line painting under him.
Life and times
Dates Dates uncertain (by one account c. 1280–1329); active under Emperor Renzong of Yuan