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Wang Lu
Kunshan physician and painter of the late Yuan and early Ming who climbed Mount Hua in 1383 and painted it in a forty-leaf album
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 Andao · Hao Jisou
Wang Lu, courtesy name Andao, came from Kunshan in Jiangsu. A physician trained under Zhu Zhenheng, he wrote the medical treatise Yijing suhui ji, and he was also a poet and painter. In 1383, while in Shaanxi, he climbed Mount Hua and on his return painted the forty-leaf Album of Mount Hua from what he had seen, adding a preface that declared 'I take my mind as teacher, my mind takes my eyes, and my eyes take Mount Hua', a plea for painting from real mountains rather than models. The album, his only surviving painting, is now divided between the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the Shanghai Museum.
Life and times
Dates Born c. 1332; date of death unknown; climbed Mount Hua in 1383