Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Jiang Shen
Landscape painter of the Song transition who lived at Zhachuan, never held office, and died in Lin'an on the eve of an audience with Emperor Gaozong
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 Guandao
Little is known of Jiang Shen, courtesy name Guandao, beyond his settling at Zhachuan, today's Huzhou, after the court moved south. He never took office and kept company with Chen Yuyi and Ye Mengde. His landscapes followed Dong Yuan and Juran in rendering the lakes and hills of the south. Deng Chun's Huaji relates that when he was summoned to Lin'an he was lodged at the prefectural office to be received the next day, but died that night. The unsigned Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is attributed to him on the strength of a colophon by the Yuan connoisseur Ke Jiusi.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active at the turn of the Northern and Southern Song, died between c. 1138 and 1159