Wu Changshuo, from a family of literati, was an accomplished painter in the late Qing Dynasty painting. He has achieved great achievements in Jinshi calligraphy, is good at freehand flowers, and his freehand flowers have a strong originality, which has a major influence on the painting of future generations, and is called "the four masters of the late Qing Dynasty" together with Xugu, Puhua and Ren Bonian.
The first half of Wu Changshuo's career was dismal and impoverished. At the age of 17, he fled to his hometown due to war, and was displaced and could only rely on domestic helpers to survive. At the age of 29, he turned around and sought many teachers to learn art, and did not learn to paint in his early years, but was good at calligraphy and seal engraving.
In middle age, he began to contact painting, first learned Ren Bonian, and then studied painting by Chen Chun and Xu Wei and others, and pursued true intentions without formality. The pen is bold and powerful, the layout is dense and straight, unique and ingenious, the image is strong and prominent, and it is quite imposing.
Different from traditional literati painters, Wu Changshuo combines poetry, books, paintings and prints into one, absorbs the strengths of all, integrates the four absolutes, especially he uses golden stones to enter the print and painting, and shapes a new artistic style and atmosphere with the most traditional artistic factors and aesthetic ideals.
Wu Changshuo realized that painting embodied the atmosphere of antiquity, and at the same time pushed Chinese painting to a new realm, which had an extremely far-reaching impact on the modern Chinese painting community. I will attach a few more works for you to taste and appreciate.