Artists › Painters and Calligraphers
Ji Sheng
Ming court painter, signing himself a painter of the Wenhua Hall, known only from his richly coloured Pedlar
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 Painter-in-attendance of the Wenhua Hall
Ji Sheng was a Ming court painter who appears in no written history of painting; his name is known only from his signature. His hanging scroll The Pedlar, ink and colour on silk in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is signed 'painter of the Wenhua Hall' and sealed 'painter of the Golden Gate'; it shows a pedlar's pole hung with wares and richly dressed children crowding round, in fine brushwork and strong colour, a courtly version of a popular subject. Catalogues such as the Complete Collection of Chinese Painting place him among the court painters of the Xuande reign.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; generally placed in the Xuande era of the Ming