Chen Hongshou

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is 陈 (Chen)

Chen Hongshou (Chinese: 陈洪绶 pinyin:Chén Hóngshòu) (1598 - 1652) was a Chinese painter of late Ming Dynasty.

Born in Zhuji, Zhejiang, he became fond of painting when he was a child. He used to learn the skill of painting from Lan Ying. In 1639, he traveled to Beijing, and managed to enter the Imperial College by donating money, and engaged in painting/copying portraits of emperors and kings the previous dynasties. He took the advantage of this position and studied hundreds of paintings by great painting masters of all times collected by the royal family. His works were highly appreciated by Chongzhen Emperor, the last emperor of Ming Dynasty. Achieving excellence in paintings, he became so popular in China that he was referred, together with Cui Zizhong, another painter of the time, as "Chen in South, Cui in North". With the downfall of Mind Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, he returned to his home town and lived on selling his paintings. He used to convert to a Buddhist monk at Yunmen Buddhist Temple in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Although he returned to secularized one year later, buddhism and zen had great influence to his idea of life as well as the theme and style of his paintings. He is most famous for personality paintings, print paintings and illustration of books. His style of paintings on figure subjects is “curious but reasonable”. He refused to paint for nobleman and dignitaries of Qing Dynasty, but would give his works to poor people for free.

His style of painting had great influence to a number of latter-day painters including Ren Yi.

His works are kept in museums and galleries all over the world including these in U.S.A.:

“Returning Home” Honolulu Academy of Arts
“Flowers & Bird (Xi Shang Mei Shao)” Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Immortals Celebrating a Birthday” Indianapolis Museum of Art
“Lady Xuanwen Jun Giving Instructions on the Classics” Cleveland Museum of Art
“Master Laozi on the Back of Ox” Cleveland Museum of Art
“The Mountain of the Five Cataracts” Cleveland Museum of Art
“The Dragon King Revering the Buddha” Freer Gallery of Art

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