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Huang Gongwang

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Traditional Chinese
  
黃公望

IPA
  
[xwaŋ kuŋwaŋ]

Died
  
1354

Wade–Giles
  
Huang Kung-wang

Role
  
Painter

Hanyu Pinyin
  
Huang Gongwang

Name
  
Huang Gongwang

Simplified Chinese
  
黃公望

Traditional Chinese
  
子久


Huang Gongwang Huang Gongwang Chinese Painter The Art History Archive

Similar People
  
Ni Zan, Wang Meng, Wu Zhen

Landscape reunited huang gongwang and dwelling in the fuchun mountains


Huang Gongwang (1269–1354) was born Lu Jian during the late Song Dynasty in Changshu, Jiangsu. He was the oldest of the "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty." (Chinese: 陸堅; pinyin: Lù Jiān).

Contents

Huang Gongwang Huang Gongwang Chinese Painter The Art History Archive

At the age of 10, the Song fell to the Mongol founders of the Yuan Dynasty and he, like many other Chinese scholars of the time, found his path to officialdom and a good career severely limited. "He was first an unranked ling-shih at a Surveillance Office in the Chiang-che Branch Secretariat (Province), probably engaged in some sort of land tax supervision. Later he served as a secretary in the metropolitan Censorate where he was unfortunately involved in the slander case of a minister, Chang Lu. He seems to have spent quite some time in jail before rereating into Taoism [as did many others of the age--another was the famous painter Ni Zan], completely disillusioned." He spent his last years in the Fu-ch'un mountains near Hangzhou devoting himself to Taoism, where around 1350 he completed one of his most famous, and arguably greatest, works, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

Huang Gongwang Huang Gongwang Paintings Chinese Art Gallery China

In art he rejected the landscape conventions of his era's Academy, but is now regarded as one of the great literati painters. Art historian James Cahill identified Huang Gongwang as the artist who "most decisively altered the course of landscape painting, creating models that would have a profound effect on landscapists of later centuries." One of Huang Gongwang’s strongest influences was his technique of using very dry brush strokes together with light ink washes (when colour is applied to a specific area using a soft-haired brush with wide strokes that blend them together into a unified wash) to build up his landscape paintings. He also wrote a treatise on landscape painting, Secrets of Landscape Painting (寫山水訣, Xiě Shānshuǐ Jué).

Huang Gongwang FileHuang Gongwang Clearing After Sudden Snow ca 1340

As was typical for Chinese scholar-officials of his era, he also wrote poetry and had some talent for music.

Huang Gongwang Huang Gongwang Chinese Painter The Art History Archive

Gip3 huang gongwang 720p0513



Huang Gongwang Huang Gongwang Chinese Painter The Art History Archive

References

Huang Gongwang Wikipedia