Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Huang Jucai
Son of Huang Quan who carried the Shu court's fine flower-and-bird style into the early Song painting academy
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 Boluan · Huang Jucai (variant writing)
Huang Jucai, courtesy name Boluan, was a native of Chengdu and the son of the Five Dynasties painter Huang Quan. He worked with his father at the Later Shu court and, when Later Shu surrendered in 965, moved to the Song capital and joined the Hanlin painting academy. He painted flowers, bamboo, birds and rocks in his father's finely outlined, colour-filled manner, and under Emperor Taizong he was charged with searching out and appraising paintings for the palace collection. For decades the academy judged bird-and-flower painting by the Huang family standard, which Guo Ruoxu summed up as rich and noble. His hanging scroll Pheasant, Sparrows and Thorny Shrubs is in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Life and times
Dates c. 933-after 993