Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Wang Yuanqi
Early Qing landscape painter and vice minister of revenue, grandson of Wang Shimin and one of the Four Wangs
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 Maojing · Hao Lutai
Wang Yuanqi, courtesy name Maojing and art name Lutai, came from Taicang in Jiangsu and was the grandson of the painter Wang Shimin. He passed the metropolitan examination in 1670, began as magistrate of Ren county, and after posts including supervising secretary entered the Southern Study in 1704, rising to vice minister of revenue. He directed the imperial compilation of the Peiwenzhai Manual of Painting and Calligraphy and chaired the illustrated record of the Kangxi emperor's sixtieth-birthday celebrations. His landscapes follow Huang Gongwang, built up in layers of dry brush, and with Wang Shimin, Wang Jian and Wang Hui he is one of the Four Wangs. The Palace Museum in Beijing holds his Mount Hua and his version of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. He died in office in 1715.
Life and times
Dates 1642 CE–1715 CE