Wang Hui

Author: Wang Hui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Wang Hui (1632–1717), styled Shigu, was also known as Gengyan Sanren, Wumu Shanzhong, Qinghui Zhuren, etc. He was from Yushan, Jiangsu (now Changshu). He excelled in painting landscapes and pioneered the Yushan School. Throughout his life and after his death, he was regarded as one of the most representative painters of the Qing Dynasty. However, the understanding and evaluation of his representativeness have varied greatly over the past three hundred years. In the early Qing Dynasty, he was hailed as the "saint of painting" by eminent figures such as Wang Shimen and Wu Weiye, and his reputation remained high for over two hundred years. In modern times, Chen Duxiu, a leader of the New Culture Movement, criticized him as the "culmination of bad Chinese painting" and an "idol blindly worshipped by society," and his fame declined amid this backlash. In the new era, scholars have strived to move beyond these two extreme views, reevaluating Wang Shigu within the broader context of the evolution from Dong Qichang to the "Four Wangs." While this reassessment relies on new perspectives and methods, it cannot be divorced from his surviving authentic works, the historical context, and his artistic career and intentions, requiring thoughtful analysis. Wang Shigu "showed an interest in paper and brush as soon as he began studying," and he painted for about eighty years until the age of eighty-six. The number of his surviving authentic works, already numbering over two hundred forty at the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Shanghai Museum, is substantial. Therefore, to examine the origins and development of Shigu's art and to provide a realistic evaluation, it is essential to begin with a chronological division.