Chen Hongshou | the most famous figure painter of the late Ming Dynasty, whose paintings are high and ancient, dating back to the Jin and Tang Dynasties

Chen Hongshou (1598-1652), the Marquis of Zhang, because he liked lotuses, he called himself Lao Lian, nicknamed Lao Chi, Zhuji, Zhejiang, was an outstanding painter in the late Ming Dynasty. As one of the strange masters of the late Ming Dynasty, the unique face of his paintings has a pioneering value at that time and even today.

Chen Hongshou has made many works in his lifetime, and is good at painting landscapes, flowers and birds, especially figure painting. His painting art presents a unique style, and his works generally show the characteristics of "crazy is not crazy", "ugly is beautiful", "Zen", "gongbi charm" and so on - series of style characteristics.

Deformation and exaggeration are the forms of expression commonly used in his paintings, and he focuses on the profound refinement of the image, paying attention to both the exaggeration of the form and the subtlety of the expression of the expression. "Crazy" and "ugly" are expressed in the appearance of the image he depicts, with a deep sense of life, which is "ugly is beautiful" and "virtue has grown and forgotten".

Chen Hongshou's life can be said to have ups and downs. His grandfather was a jinshi during the Wanli Dynasty, a political envoy in Guangdong and Shaanxi, and his father was the third son of the Chen family, who studied Buddhist principles and was closely related to xu Wei, a famous painter of the Ming Dynasty.

Chen Hongshou was instructed by Lan Ying to paint when he was young, and was appreciated by Dong Qichang's friend Chen Jiru, and later became acquainted with the theorist Liu Zongzhou, the famous scholar Zhang Dai, and the great calligrapher and painter Qi Zhixiang. The good family environment has laid a cultural foundation for the development of Chen Hongshou's artistic talents.

But when he was 18 years old, the family changed and his parents died early. Chen Hongwan, who was at odds with his brother and sister-in-law and left home, was full of ambition, and he participated in the examination many times, but he did not pass the examination, and the disillusionment of his career hope brought great pain to his heart.

Later, when the Qing army entered the customs, Nanjing and Hangzhou fell one after another, and the teachers and friends around Chen Hongshou also committed suicide one after another, which was a huge blow to Chen Hongshou, who deeply felt that the country was hopeless, and Chen Hongshou, who was disheartened, cut his hair and became a monk, studied Buddhism and Zen, and after a year returned to the world, he sold paintings for a living.

His life of twists and turns has created his unique personality and formed a unique artistic style of "rather clumsy than coincidental, rather ugly than charming". We often say that Chen Hongwan's paintings are "crazy" and "ugly". This kind of "madness and ugliness" permeates Chen Hongwan's depiction of life events and emotional expressions, and these characteristics have a deep and touching sense of life, giving the viewer a strong impact

Chen Hongshou was born into a famous and prestigious family, learned Confucian thought since childhood, and after falling in the middle of the family road, he experienced the life of the citizen class, and integrated these two life emotions into his own paintings, and the works were rich in decorative and secular artistic expression, thus breaking the boundaries between literati and secular, and forming an artistic style of elegant and popular appreciation.

And Chen Hongwan's wild and uninhibited personality and unique painting style are the result of the tribulations and hardships he has encountered, and a special record of his life experience, Chen Hongwan is constantly growing in adversity, exerting his painting genius in adversity, and constantly developing in landscape painting, flower and bird painting, figure painting, calligraphy, poetry, printmaking and other aspects.

"Nan Chen" Chen Laolian's painting art has created a new height of Ming Dynasty figure painting, the works are appreciated by both elegant and popular, widely circulated, far-reaching influence, the development of today's painting art, although it is not the influence of the style of the times, but the study of ancient law is also indispensable.

Chen Hongwan's art represents the style of the times in which he lives, has obvious characteristics of the times, has a profound feeling for the characteristics of the times, and his painting style and techniques are the inexhaustible source of learning in the field of calligraphy and painting today.