Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Du Jin
Mid-Ming painter from Dantu who gave up an official career after failing the jinshi examination and became known for figure painting in fine line
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 Junan · Hao Chengju · Hao Gukuang
Du Jin, born into the Lu family, courtesy name Junan, styled Chengju, Gukuang and Qingxia Tingzhang, came from Dantu, modern Zhenjiang in Jiangsu. After failing the jinshi examination in the Chenghua era he gave up hope of office and devoted himself to poetry, calligraphy and painting. He knew the ancient scripts and painted figures, buildings and flowers and birds; his figures in fine outline are especially careful, refining the Southern Song academy manner with a scholar's restraint, and they influenced Tang Yin and other Suzhou painters. Enjoying Antiquities, a hanging scroll in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, shows a scholar examining ancient bronzes, and his handscroll Illustrations to Poems of Ancient Worthies also survives.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active c. 1465–1509