Leng Mei "Gongyuan Lady Figure", Qing Dynasty
Leng Ming is a descendant of the famous painter Leng Chaoyan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, who studied under the court painter Jiao Bingzhen in the early Qing Dynasty, who once evaluated his paintings with "Gong Danqing, Wonderful Color, and Painting Characters Especially For a While". He lived in the inner court of the Qing Dynasty for most of his life, painted for the three emperors of Kang Yongqian, was an all-round painter who had been painting for many years in the Yuanmingyuan, and was also the leader among the court painters of the Qing Dynasty.
Leader of court painters
According to legend, during the Kangxi period, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and Kangxi counted the paintings in the palace, and there was not a single jade rabbit, so he ordered Leng To draw this unique "Wutong Double Rabbit Map". After the completion of the work, Kangxi praised "the rabbit is the spirit of the bright moon, the world can paint the jade rabbit Xiangrui, and the aura is only cold." "Posterity called it: the world's first auspicious double rabbit."
Leng Ming "Wutong Double Rabbit Diagram", color on silk, 176.2×95cm, Qing Dynasty, Beijing Palace Museum collection
If we look closely, we will find that every detail of this painting is perfect. The delicate white rabbit fluff is outlined one by one by the cold pieces, and while pursuing delicacy and realism, it retains the due light and shadow effect and sense of volume, and integrates western painting techniques into it.
Leng Mei "Wutong Double Rabbit Diagram" (partial), color on silk, 176.2×95cm, Qing Dynasty, Beijing Palace Museum collection
Throughout the ages, famous artists have preferred to paint with the auspicious zodiac sign, Zhang Daqian's tiger, Xu Beihong's horse, and Han Di's cattle are all familiar paintings, but there are very few famous artists who have entered the painting with "rabbit". And the "Wutong Double Rabbit Diagram" drawn by a school of "court painting masters" Leng Mei has undoubtedly become the highest peak in the "Jade Rabbit Painting", which no one can match.
Leng Mei "Wash Horse Diagram", Vertical Axis, Qing Dynasty
As we all know, court painters require painting achievements to reach the highest realm in order to be able to take responsibility, and Leng Ming, as the "court painting master" of the third generation of Kang Yongqian, his paintings also represent the top techniques of court painting. His drawing of the Kangxi Longevity Sacred Scripture Scroll was later called "the Qing Dynasty's "Qing Dynasty's "Qing Dynasty Upper River Map". In 2010, a figure painting by him, "Tiger Figure", was auctioned for HK$16.9 million.
Leng Mei "Hundred Zi Tu", vertical axis, Qing Dynasty
Such a talented painter did not experience many ups and downs and criticisms in his early career. With his diligent and studious attitude and solid painting skills, he was soon appreciated by the emperor, and around the fifty years of the Kangxi Dynasty (1711), he became the foreman of the Inner Court Painting Academy.
Leng Mei "Xue Yan Tu", Qing Dynasty
The high status of Leng Ming among court painters at that time can be seen from the signature of the last volume of Kangxi's Sixty-Year Wanshou Tu, which was cooperated by 14 famous court painters headed by him: "Kangxi Fifty-sixth Spring Moon Chen Leng Ming ... Xu Mingshi was painted by Gong Gong. ”
Leng Mei "Xue Yan Tu" (partial), Qing Dynasty
Leng Mei was once greatly appreciated by the Kangxi Emperor, so it was not an accident that he received such an honor. It can be seen in the "Summer Resort Map" drawn by him, he has a high degree of generalization ability and exquisite artistic expression skills.
Cold Piece "Lady", four screens, colored paper, 100×28cm, Qing Dynasty
The summer resort covers an area of about 5.64 million square meters and is a rare large-scale garden in China. Leng Mei not only compresses the garden panorama into the canvas, but also expresses the majestic style of the mountains around the garden, so that people's eyes can expand to the infinite space hundreds of miles away. It can be seen that a generation of "court painting masters" is not a vain name.
Leng Ming "Chun Le Tu", Qing Dynasty
Nevertheless, Leng Mei was also snubbed during the Yongzheng period and expelled from the court painting academy. It is reported that it is because Yongzheng does not like the Chinese people to paint with Western painting methods, and Leng Ming and his teacher Jiao Bingzhen and others are representatives of Western painting techniques. So Leng Mei left the court for 13 years and became an opposition painter, and the "subject" character in the previous painting also became Zhu Wenyin of the "History of Golden Gate Painting".
Leng Ming "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest", Qing Dynasty
Fortunately, Qianlong was a discerning emperor, and before he ascended the throne, he had noticed Leng Ming's works. He re-transmitted Leng Ming back to the palace, and gave him the treatment of the highest court painter, ordering Leng Ming to paint the Yuanmingyuan Temple. Because of his outstanding talents and outstanding achievements, he was highly valued and appreciated by the supreme ruler, and the Qing dynasty once described Leng Ming as "the longest to serve the inner court with paintings".
Leng Mei "Character Fan", Qing Dynasty
Leng Mei "Landscape Character Fan", Qing Dynasty
Tradition and the West face each other
As a representative figure absorbing Western painting techniques, Leng Ming's paintings do not lack the pursuit of light and shadow and the embodiment of three-dimensional perspective. For example, on the basis of traditional Gongbijie painting, "Summer Resort Map" cleverly absorbs the European perspective method and integrates the two together, so as to more scientifically and objectively show the physical structure of the building, and also strengthen the sense of depth of the picture.
Cold Piece "Summer Resort Map", color on silk, 254.8×172cm, Qing Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
The Western painting techniques and the combination of Chinese and Western painting styles brought by European missionaries painters are more unique than the traditional painting styles. And Leng Ming uses a novel Western painting method to polish his meticulous traditional boundary paintings, which just shows the classical Chinese garden more vividly, less dull and blunt, more interesting and spirited.
Leng Ming "Spring Night Feast Peach and Plum Garden Map", Qing Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei
This painting of the Yongzheng Period, "Spring Girl Tired Reading Map", presents the idle and lonely life of everyone in ancient times on the scroll. Dressed in a long skirt, the lady with her hair in a high bun and standing on her side leaning on the table, Wen Jing's leisurely demeanor was slightly tired, which formed a contrast between static and moving with the cute puppy under her knees.
Leng Ming "Spring Girl Tired Reading Map", Qing Dynasty, Tianjin Museum Collection
The seemingly invisible shadows in the folds of the clothes are undoubtedly the embodiment of European painting techniques. The gelatinous hands and meticulous scrolls all reveal a delicate three-dimensional effect, which in the local details are reminiscent of the daughters of famous aristocrats depicted in Western academic paintings.
Leng Mei "Spring Girl Tired Reading Map" (partial), Qing Dynasty, Tianjin Museum collection
In the ninth year of Yongzheng, Leng Ming painted a "Dedication To life map" for his eldest birthday, which can be called the representative work of Leng Ming's female painting. In the painting, the Magu fairy is slender and elegant, and the peony and fairy grass wild hui in the bamboo basket are vividly portrayed by it. The exquisite outline and the grasp of the three-dimensional structure make the picture style fluctuate between the traditional and the West.
Leng Ming "Dedication to Life", Qing Dynasty
In this way, the expulsion from the palace painting academy during the Yongzheng period did not bring too heavy a blow to Leng Ming. During this period, he even created countless masterpieces such as "Farmer Storybook", "Deguo Tu", "Garment Diagram", "Furnace Diagram" and so on, and still adhered to his painting practice.
Leng Ming," "Palace Costume Girl Drama Diagram - Qianlong Imperial System Tianzhong Er Fun Picture Poem", Qing Dynasty
New and unique European painting techniques continue to spread and develop in leng ming's paintings, until they collide with tradition to create a more stunning spark. From the Kangxi Dynasty to the end of the Qianlong Period, with the continuous infiltration of Western cultural trends, the painting style of combining Chinese and Western techniques was quite popular in the academy, and influenced folk art, forming a novel artistic style, and Leng Ming was the active promoter of this technique.
Leng Mei "Hundred Zi Tu", Qing Dynasty
Gong LiYanya's lady picture
Leng Ming is good at painting figures and boundary paintings, especially fine women. The figures he paints are beautiful and elegant, the pen and ink are clean, the colors are beautiful, and they are highly decorative. Maybe with just one glance, you can't help but want to know all the information about the woman in the painting.
Leng Mei "Lady", vertical shaft, silk color, 107×57cm, Qing Dynasty
The ladies in Leng Ming's paintings have independent personalities under their exquisite portrayals, just like human beings in the real world, who seem to be born after their own independent souls. From the gods who rise above the clouds to the women hiding in the deep boudoir, their looks and postures are unique.
Leng Ming "Dedication to Life", Vertical Axis, Qing Dynasty
The beauty of the deep window recalled the years, and Lang said that Wen Ji recognized the broken string. How like the virgins in front of the wind lead, a low song makes people pity. In addition to the simple technical performance, Leng Mei has also described the woman in his painting in the form of poems many times, and the words and paintings complement each other, and together compose a wonderful chapter.
Leng Ming "Xi Xiang Listening to the Qin", Qing Dynasty
When it comes to words, we have to mention Leng Ming's "Ten Palace Word Diagram". It depicts the stories of the virtuous concubines or noblewomen of the past, and the characters are neatly painted, and the poems written by Liang Shizheng in the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735) before the succession to the throne are written by Liang Shizheng, which reflect each other with the pictures.
Leng Ming "Ten Palaces Word Diagram", Qing Dynasty
In addition, the ladies in Leng Ming's pen also exist in a series of allegorical paintings. For example, the laurel tree, the lotus flower in the woman's hand, the reed sheng, and the child under the knee constitute the auspicious meaning of "liansheng noble son". The characters are depicted in great detail, the lines are filled in color, the colors are strong, and the love and pleasure of the woman and the lively and cute state of the child are portrayed quite vividly and accurately.
Leng Ming "Liansheng Guizi Diagram", color on silk, 95.5×45.5cm, Qing Dynasty, Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts collection
In fact, Leng Ming's subject matter is very extensive, including characters, Buddhist taoism, birds and beasts, ma long, architectural gardens, court utensils, historical stories, etc., which can be described as an all-round painter. What is helpless is that his painstaking works that he has painted in the Yuanmingyuan for many years have disappeared with the looting and burning of the British and French allies, which is lamentable.