Hong Ren ( Chinese 弘仁 , 1610 - 1663 ) is an early Chinese artist, a member of the Xin'an School of Painting (Xin'an Pai 新安 派), some researchers compare the work with the work of the Yuan master of painting, Ni Zan倪 瓒. According to Zhang Geng, the author of a solid treatise on painting, Hong Ren was skilled not only in painting, but also in literature and versification.
Biography
Hong Ren is his monastic name, the name in the world is Jiang Tao 江 韜, he was born in Anhui安徽, in the county of Shexian歙县. As a child, he was an eccentric, notorious and withdrawn child. From early childhood he was fond of literature and, having lost his father very early, he began to draw in order to provide for an already poor family. However, not a single work that could be associated with that period of the artist’s life was preserved even in copies.
In parallel with this, Hong Ren did not stop his studies, and even before the fall of the Minsk ruling house, he received a low official post, passing the state exams for the degree of syutsai 秀才 (unofficial colloquial name 生 員 shenyuan - the first of the three academic degrees in the state exam system of keju under the Ming Dynasty and Qing).
Hong Ren's style is described as “a dematerialized, refined picture of the world ... bringing peace through geometric abstractions.” One should only look at the paintings “Mountains and rivers in autumn” (“qiujing shan-shui tu” 秋景 山水 圖) and “Imitation of the origins” (“ fan ni shan-shui tu ”(仿 倪 山水 圖), in order to understand that this definition most fully reflects the essence of the artist’s creativity.
The loss of his father, disappointment with life, the fall of the Minsk dynasty, forced Hong Ren to abandon his former way of life and go to a monastery on Mount Wuyishan . Subsequently, in connection with this, along with Kun Tsan髡 殘, Zhu Da朱 耷 and Shi Tao石涛, he was called one of the “four great monks” (“shysen” 四 僧). All four are united by the fact that they seek to express their dissatisfaction with the new world not in any aggressive political manner, but through landscape painting.
In particular, in the works of Hong Ren, the dark drawings of mountains and plains cast a feeling of melancholy on the person looking at the picture. “Pine, valley, source” (“Song he qing quan tu” 松 壑 清泉 圖) - a painting made by the double-contour technique (“shuang go joo” 雙鉤 竹) - by sketching the base of the picture, which is then painted over with paints. Aggressive, bold features of the mountains, spiky trees that break through the stone - this is what expresses the frenzy of the world, which the artist is trying to reveal.
Having left the monastery on Wuyishan, Hong Ren went to wander in the south-west of China, and eventually returned to his homeland - in Shexian. However, he never forgot about the mountains, regularly climbing up to Huangshan , which became the permanent object of the late painting of Hong Ren. This can be judged by the sketching works, for example, “A sketch in the style of shan-shui” (“shan-shui tse” 山水 冊). Not without reason, in the traditional Chinese historiography of China, the phrase "Shi-tao comprehended the soul of the Huangshan Mountains, Mei-Qing - their form, and Hong Ren - their essence" is often found. Having secluded himself for a long time in the Huangshan Monastery of Guhan, he, like no one else, learned to see the mountains as they are: majestic and enormous, through which a mountain stream breaks through like blades.
Links
References
- The spiritual culture of China: encyclopedia: in 5 tons / hl. ed. M. L. Titarenko; Institute of the Far East. - M.: East. lit., 2006-. T. 6 (optional)
- Art / Ed. # M. L. Titarenko et al. - 2010 .-- 1031 p.
- Zavadskaya E.V. Aesthetic problems of painting in old China. M., 1975,