Artist: Wang Jian
Date: 1652
Size: 20 x 11 cm
Technique: Paper
Wang Jian, a native of Taicang, Jiangsu, was a great-grandson of the late Ming literary doyen Wang Shizhen. Between the 12th and 14th years of the Chongzhen reign (1639-1641), he was Prefect of Lianzhou (present-day Hepu, Guangxi) but abstained from serving the court after the Manchus had come to power. Keeping up with the family tradition in painting, he honed his skills under Dong Qichang. Ranking with his friend Wang Shimin and others including Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi as the Four Wangs, he became a leading figure in the Orthodox School of painting.Landscape was Wang Jian’s genre of choice, which he derived exclusively from Dong Yuan, Monk Juran and various masters of the Song and Yuan. In his view, any painter other than them were simply unorthodox. Deeply influenced by Dong Qichang, he devoted himself to copying and emulating ancient masters with an interpretative approach so that the distinctive characteristics of their brush and ink are preserved not without personal reinterpretation. Apart from large standalone pieces, the Four Wangs also created small-size albums in ancient styles as did Wang Jian in the present specimen. Emitting charm from the sophisticated manipulation of brush and ink, the 10 leaves that make up the album are primarily monochromatically in ink with individuals slightly tinted in light colours. The self-inscription on the last leaf is explicit that the work seeks to emulate Song and Yuan masters but falls short of identifying exactly who. For all its personality, the album is so faithful in spirit that it is not difficult to unmask the masters being honoured to be Dong Yuan, Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Fan Kuan, Huang Gongwang, Zhao Mengfu, Wu Zhen and Wang Meng. Dated the 9th year of the Shunzhi reign (1652) and impressed with a seal bearing his courtesy name Xuanzhao, which was to be changed to avoid the taboo of sharing the same name with the reigning emperor Xuanye, it manifests how the painter, then 43, succeeded in forging his own character through copying the past to produce one of the best emulative masterpieces. Each of the paintings is juxtaposed with a commentary inscribed by Lu Yuqing, or Lu Shihua’s son. At the end of the album are three colophons inscribed respectively by Lu Shihua, Kong Guangtao and He Guanwu. Small in size as noted by collectors in their title slips, it further brings to mind the Four Wangs’ practice of scaling down their copies of the Song and Yuan masterpieces in their collection to fit into a handy album for teaching and record purposes.Once in the collection of successively Lu Shihua, Kong Guangtao and Zhang Daqian, the boxed album is impressed with quite some collector seals which attest to not only its exceptional provenance but also the endurance of the Four Wang’s legacy well into the modern period.(Entry written by Phil Chan, in
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