Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Zeng Jing
Late Ming portrait painter from Putian who worked in Nanjing, building faces from ink structure and layered washes, and founded the Bochen school
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 Bochen
Zeng Jing, courtesy name Bochen, came from Putian in Fujian and spent most of his life in Nanjing, travelling through the Jiangnan region as a portraitist. He first drew the features and bone structure in light ink and then built up the face in layered washes, giving it volume, a method often linked to Western pictures then reaching China; Jiang Shaoshu wrote that his likenesses were like reflections in a mirror. His many pupils formed the Bochen school, which shaped Qing portraiture. The Tianjin Museum holds his small portrait of Wang Shimin at twenty-five.
Life and times
Dates 1564 CE–1647 CE