In the Xianfeng Decade (1860), the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army captured Hangzhou, a vigorous uprising that tried to establish a fair and upright world, but the reality was that the provinces of the lower Yangtze River, known for their wealth, were particularly badly affected. Zhejiang painter Zhao Zhiqian is also inevitably involved in the torrent of history.
Zhao Zhiqian has been reading and writing since childhood, knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and makes a living from calligraphy and painting. After failing the township test, life fell into a desperate situation and could only go out to work.
During this period, Zhao Zhiqian never gave up his idea of joining the army, until he was 31 years old, and finally won the lift. He wanted to make a great difference in the official field, but it backfired, and after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army captured Hangzhou, he had to flee from Hangzhou in chaos.
In order to live, Zhao Zhiqian had to go out to sell characters and engrave for a living, but later Zhao Zhiqian's daughter, who was only one year old, died prematurely, and his wife could not bear the blow and died of illness that year. Zhao Zhiqian was devastated, and printed the "Sorrowful Nunnery" "Thirty-year-old family is broken and dead, but the number of the Sorrowful Nunnery."
After Zhao Zhiqian's confidants, mentors and protégés died one after another, all of which made Zhao Zhiqian's life hang up the label of a bumpy fate, after the age of 30, there were no relatives, no friends and no disciples, accompanied by only asthma, and the heartache in his heart could be imagined.
Zhao Zhiqian experienced four dynasties in his life, was born in Daoguang, went through Xianfeng, Tongzhi, and died in Guangxu, which seemed long, but only 55 years.
Zhao Zhiqian, Zi Yifu, Uncle Jiao, outstanding calligrapher and painter and seal engraver in the late Qing Dynasty. His seal carved the Fa Qin and Han Jinshi scripts to form his own style, known as the "Zhao Pai". In terms of calligraphy, he was the most powerful practitioner of qing dynasty epigraphy theory.
In the painting of flowers and birds, Zhao Zhiqian learned from his predecessors and the famous artists of various schools of his generation, and he combined yun Nantian's boneless painting method with the freehand painting method of "Yangzhou Eight Monsters", and at the same time did not confine himself to his predecessors, had the courage to innovate, and combined poetry, books, paintings and prints to create a "Golden Stone Painting Style".
Zhao Zhiqian's boneless flowers and birds are mostly painted on cooked xuan or silk, painted over and over again, and many small pieces are folded branches. Zhao Zhiqian has taken a big step forward in the boneless flower and bird painting, and his flower and bird paintings are rich and varied, and the colors are quaint and elegant.
After experiencing the ups and downs of the world, Zhao Zhiqian, who lives in the turbulent and changeable era of decline, has a very distinct personality, exudes excitement and infinite vitality in his paintings, and this spirit of "life abuses me thousands of times, I treat life like my first love" has injected activities into his works and made his works shine with brilliance.
The "Flower Album" in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing belongs to its early masterpiece, and the fourteen opening albums use almost all the Chinese painting pigments, including mineral pigments such as shiqing and shiqing.
In the opening of "Three Friends of the Cold Year of the Quasi-Nansha Xiangguo", camellias are depicted in cinnabar and red, and leaves are depicted in flower cyan, and the two areas are equal. Zhao Zhiqian makes full use of the calm hue of the Chinese painting pigment itself to make the picture harmonious.
"Red Narcissus" at the beginning reflects the superb skill of its hooking and dyeing method, the painting of daffodils, Ganoderma lucidum stones, miscellaneous leaves are expressed by the hook dyeing method, with the relative neatness of the pen, in addition to the dyeing of the daffodil petals have changes in shade, other pursuit of flat effects, the contrast of different color blocks is emphasized.
"Fu GuiChang" opens, two peonies, one blooms, one will be remnants, and its leaves are hooked and stemd like a seal book, which has the magic of iron painting and silver hook.
Zhao Zhiqian dipped different colors on the pen, did not reconcile, directly clicked down, in fact, to the paper and then reconciled, so that the color can naturally melt, but also to ensure the purity and brilliance of the color, so that the complex sense of thickness can be played. In this flowering head, vermilion, cinnabar and rouge are all such color grading methods.
In the same year, he created another set of "Flower Albums", which is now in the Shanghai Museum. These two groups of "Flower Albums" are mainly colored on paper, and their colors are rich and colorful, the composition is unique, and they are mostly painted using the boneless painting method.
Among them, "Hulu" opened, a complete gourd was drawn in front, and the gourd was then painted with the same heavy color as the leaves, and the four or five layers of objects coincided, leaving no blank space, but accurately portraying their respective edge forms, enriching the picture effect.
As soon as "Chaoxiaxuan" opens, it shows the beauty of flowers in the form of folded branches, green leaves and red flowers, as if bathed in spring breeze and sunshine, a piece of vitality, lush atmosphere at a glance, the rhythm of natural life infiltrated in the painting is the voice of the painter. From the middle of the work, we can feel the strong, indomitable, positive spirit.
Zhao Zhiqian's freehand paintings of flowers and birds were the first to be painted with the north stele, and then the pen method of calligraphy and the interest of gold stone seal carving were introduced into the painting, making the painting style strong and ancient, and creating a new style of freehand flower and bird painting in the late Qing Dynasty. Looking at Zhao Zhiqian's freehand paintings of flowers and birds, its style characteristics are roughly expressed in the following aspects.
The subject matter of painting is extensive, and there has been a great breakthrough in the subject matter compared with traditional literati painting.
In traditional Chinese flower paintings, most of the common themes depicted are "four gentlemen", and the themes are also depicted around integrity and spirit. He paints what others paint, and he paints what others don't paint, such as iron trees, reishi mushrooms, bergamots, palms, and jackfruit.
For example, during the period of avoiding chaos in Wen and Fujian, Zhao Zhiqian painted two works according to local products, "Ouzhong Property Volume" and "Different Fish Map", of which a variety of Ouzhong specialties and various strange fish, these themes have never been painted before.
Chinese literati paintings have always adhered to the minimalist style in composition, paying attention to the virtual lining and winning more with less. Zhao Zhiqian's mature painting style is mainly based on "dense body", and his floral works are often covered with all paper, but they are not crowded, dense but not complicated, complex and not chaotic, and they are seen in precision. This rich and full composition not only makes the picture full of tension, but also has decorative interest.
Zhao Zhiqian's freehand paintings of flowers and birds, but try to combine ink and color, with rich, gorgeous colors with full ink boldly smeared, sprinkled, unrestrained, so the delicate posture of flowers and plants is vividly depicted. Zhao Zhiqian's method of using color influenced later painters such as Wu Changshuo.
Zhao Zhiqian has profound calligraphy skills, and his works have a golden stone flavor.
He drew nourishment from epigraphy and epigraphy, and introduced factors such as the pen method of calligraphy and the interest of gold stone seal carving into painting, forming a new style of flower and bird painting with a strong "golden stone flavor" with strong and ancient clumsiness, heavy pen and ink, and magnificent momentum.
"Lamei Camellia Diagram" is a classic of this type of work. Behind the lake stone, the plums are oblique, the branches are luxuriant, and the thick trunks are separated and interspersed with pictures, dotted with camellias. The Lake Stone Brushwork is concise and concise, vigorous and powerful, reflecting Zhao Zhiqian's profound North Monument skills. The trunk lines are vigorous and powerful, and the colors are light and thick, showing a quaint atmosphere.
Zhao Zhiqian's life has ups and downs, but it is by no means lacking in excitement. As the founder of the Jinshi school of painting in the late Qing Dynasty, he adhered to the tradition of traditional literati painting "painting with books", and carried forward this tradition, and developed "stone into painting" to a more mature realm.
His artistic creation not only provides an aesthetic paradigm for future generations, but also enriches the Chinese freehand flower and bird painting system. At the same time, as a pioneer of the "Haipai". He influenced Wu Changshuo and other "Hai School" painters, and at the same time, Qi Baishi, Chen Shizeng and other northern masters were also influenced by him.
About Zhao Zhiqian's flower and bird paintings
Flowers and birds paint many small pieces of folded branches, rich and changeable layers, and elegant and rich colors; Wide range of subject matter, full composition, strong colors, with a taste of gold and stone; With a distinct personality, the painting exudes excitement and infinite vitality; Boneless flower and bird painting has been promoted a big step, enriching the Chinese freehand flower and bird painting system; Providing an aesthetic paradigm for future generations, with far-reaching implications.