Dong Qichang
1555–1636 · Chinese painting: Ming · 7 works
Dong Qichang was a painter, calligrapher, and theorist in late Ming China. He treated the study of earlier masters as a starting point for personal expression, seeking the spirit of their work rather than an exact imitation. Landscape and writing were closely connected in his practice. Groups of trees and rocks can read as arrangements of brush movements, with open areas as important as dense ones. His paintings encourage us to follow how separate forms hold together across the surface.
7 works · 1595–1636
Follow the alternating areas of ink and open paper. Try looking at a tree or rock as a sequence of brush movements.
1595–1636 · 4 works
Walk these 4Around Lake Tai in the lower Yangzi delta, sightseeing fed a taste for pictures of real places, and Song Xu painted eighteen views around Wuxing for a client. Dong Qichang, an official, calligrapher and theorist, turned such scenery into abstract designs and urged painters to study the old masters, an approach that shaped Chinese painting for centuries.
In the museum: Chinese painting: Ming room · 2 works
1624–1632 · 3 works
Walk these 3In the museum: Chinese painting: Ming room · 1 work
Chen Hongshou
Paintings after Ancient Masters: A Lohan [after Guanxiu], 1598–1652
Gong Xian
Landscape in the Style of Dong Yuan and Juran, c. 1650
Hua Yan
Conversation in Autumn, 1732
