Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zhao Boju
Southern Song imperial clansman and painter of blue-green landscapes and ruled architecture, paired with his brother Zhao Bosu
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 Qianli
Zhao Boju, courtesy name Qianli, a seventh-generation descendant of the founding Song emperor, was a clansman-painter of the early Southern Song who rose to be military commissioner for eastern Zhejiang. He painted blue-green landscapes as well as figures, fruit, flowers and birds, and was especially admired for ruled-line architecture; with his younger brother Zhao Bosu he was known for gold-and-green landscape and enjoyed the favour of Emperor Gaozong. The long handscroll Autumn Colours over Rivers and Mountains in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is attributed to him. The unsigned Han Palace in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, showing the palace on the Double Seventh festival, was assigned to him by Dong Qichang in the late Ming.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active chiefly under Emperor Gaozong of Southern Song