From Antiquity to Trace--Analysis of the Inheritance and Development of Wang Hui's Landscape Painting

Abstract:Wang Hui was a famous landscape painter in the early Qing Dynasty. Influenced by his family environment since he was a child, he loved painting and specialized in landscape painting; later he followed Wang Jian and Wang Shimin to learn painting, and he had outstanding painting talent. During the Qing Dynasty, the development of landscape painting was based on the trend of "imitation" and the beauty of ancient times. As a landscape painter of this period, Wang Hui not only studied the landscape painting of the previous generation, but also developed on the basis of it, which made his landscape paintings unique and admired by the painters of the Qing Dynasty. This paper takes Wang Hui landscape painting as an example to illustrate the development and evolution of his landscape painting in the meaning of ink and brush from the division of the ancients to the division of the development and evolution of the creation.

Keywords: Wang Hui, landscape painting, development

South - Qi - Xie He "ancient painting Pin Lu" said: "Although the painting has six methods, rare to be able to do that. And since ancient times and today, each good section. What are the six methods? First, the gas halo vivid is also; Second, bone method with the pen is also; Third, should be object like shape is also; Fourth, with the type of color is also; Fifth, the operation of the location is also; Sixth, the transfer of the mold writing is also". Among them, the sixth "transfer mold writing" fully explains the important role of copying in the process of learning to paint. Based on this, Wang Hui widely copied the masterpieces of his predecessors and learned a lot of skills and techniques from them, which made his works give people a feeling of being dry, clear, loose, rigorous and meticulous, and very subtle. However, in the early Qing Dynasty under the influence of Dong Qichang's North and South Sect, many painters in the Qing Dynasty maintained the painting style of their predecessors, and few stood out from the monuments of their predecessors. Wang Hui was an artist in his own right. He was neither as temperate as Gradual River nor as high-definition as some of those who refused to associate with bureaucrats, but he aspired to be a painter, and it can be said that painting was part of his life. He inherited the Southern School and absorbed the Northern School, and his painting ideas deserve the attention and research of landscape painting learners. The collection of the best of the past is a great success. It was the study of his predecessors' works and his bold artistic practice that finally realized his painting style.

First, the ancient period - "imitation" for the trend, to the ancient for the beauty

Wang Yuanqi, "Rainy Window Compendium": "Learning is not the teacher of the ancient, such as the night line without fire," Huang Binhong also said that "painting is not the teacher of the ancient, such as the night line without fire". Huang Binhong also said that "painting is not an ancient teacher, there is no one who can become a family". These two great masters of landscape painting in different periods talked about the importance of learning from the ancients from the perspective of painting creation. From the history of the development of landscape painting, we can find that painters in the Ming and Qing dynasties mostly copied their predecessors' traces to learn the theory and method of painting, and ultimately to obtain a breakthrough in the development of their own path. As one of the "Four Kings" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Wang Hui abided by the tradition and gained new ideas and new realms of landscape painting.

Wang Hui's landscape paintings are mainly characterized by the art of integration and compatibility between the north and the south, and his artistic style is mainly formed by the ancient master. At the early stage of his study of painting, he mainly copied the works from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, and among all the works he copied, the landscape paintings of the Song and Yuan Dynasties are the main representatives. The development of landscape painting in the Song and Yuan dynasties was already relatively mature, which enabled Wang to have enough opportunities to see the works of the Song and Yuan dynasties, and in turn to learn more about brushwork, ink, composition and other painting methods. Wang's copying of the works of the Song masters was mainly represented by Fan Kuan, Liu Songnian, and Mi Fu. Wang's copying of the works of the period was characterized by a combination of the Southern Sect's clean and elegant painting style and the Northern Sect's "strange and craggy style, sweeping and hard", which led to the emergence of a new outlook of the works. Such as Fan Kuan's works, the copy of the picture, the picture of uniform rain chapped, through the art of handling, making the real texture of the rocks weakened, enhanced the decorative effect of the picture, so that the picture has a kind of different from the Sung people's hills and valleys, so that the works of the shape of the quality of the appearance of a new look.

Wang copied a large number of works of the Yuan Dynasty, mainly by Zhao Mengfu and the Four Yuan Schools, but the most representative is Huang Gongwang's Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, which he copied eight times, and it can be seen that Wang was obsessed with Huang's works, and every time he copied it, he would have different gains, which made the quality of the brushwork and the ink constantly improve. The practice of the techniques of "hooking, chapping, dotting, and coloring" in landscape painting continued to mature, and his understanding of brushwork was greatly improved. However, Wang Hui on the Yuan's understanding of the work is even more profound, Wang Shigu Yun: "Yuan painting to the idea, straight out of the interest of the elephant, conceptualization and management, gas halo vivid, not fall into the specifications of the history of painting. Peaks, trees and rocks, buildings, boats, out of the rules into the distance, I'm afraid that all out of the vertical and horizontal grooves. In the past, Huang Zi long day sitting on the lake bridge to see the mountain drinking, to the creation of the teacher, the intention of the charm, do not want to look like, and then into the marvelous, you can know that the heart is not in the distance." From this, we can see that the division of the ancients of the signs and division of the ancients of the heart for learning to paint are extremely important.

Second, the traces of the period - "to the Yuan people ink and brush, transport the Song people gullies"

Song and Yuan painting ideas, aesthetic concepts, and methods of expression, ink and brush language are very different, how to make the landscape painting of the Song people of that majestic How to make the landscape paintings have the majestic hills and gullies and thick and gorgeous weather of the Song Dynasty, Wang Hui carefully explored, and he adopted a compromise method of expression. Wang Hui "Qinghui painting trek" "to the Yuan brush and ink, transport Song people gullies, and Ze to the Tang people rhyme, is a great success." Wang Hui used the brush and ink of the Yuan Dynasty, the gullies of the Song Dynasty, and then the chiaroscuro of the Tang Dynasty, and finally organically combined together, and formed his own style of painting, and ultimately to express the inner spirit of the landscape.

Wang Hui in painting landscapes, according to the depiction of different objects using different methods of expression, such as the expression of hard rocks, the use of short chapped and line instead of the surface of the chapped way, so that the picture appeared to be different from others in a new style. The work "fisherman's farm autumn clear sky map", the work of the composition is concise, showing the seasonal characteristics of the fisherman's farm in the fall of the desolate and quiet, the picture gives a person a sense of ethereal and full of life. Wang Hui in the brushwork is also very careful, he dry brush chapping, wet and dry method to show the texture of the rocks, tree performance is used "book into the painting" way of expression, so that the trees are extremely rich in charm and posture, and ultimately make the landscape painting is better than the natural landscape.

Due to the development of the Song dynasty science, the Song landscape painting in the form of expression is more objective, but this objective way of expression is particularly passive, such as the period of Fan Kuan's "Xi Shan Xing Gui Tu" and Guo Xi's "Early Spring Tu", are the specific form of the mountains and rivers and the depiction of the Wang will be the objective form of these artistic treatment, so as to make it more rich in the sense of form. Previously on his work "water pavilion ghosts" several times copying study found that the painting used the "three far method" in the distant composition method, the painting is full of composition, brushwork work fine, fresh tone. The combination of houses, pine trees and miscellaneous trees in the near distance of the picture complements each other, and the large area of white space at the foot of the mountain creates a great sense of space in the picture. The author claims that this picture is modeled after the painting style of the old man in Yunxi (Cao Zhi Bai). Cao Zhi Bai was a skilled landscape painter who studied the ancient masters of the Song Dynasty, including Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Dong Yuan, and Ju Ran. By analyzing this work, it can be found that it is a creation that combines the different painting methods of Song and Yuan paintings.

Conclusion

Through the above analysis of Wang Hui's landscape paintings from antiquity to traces, it can be seen that the development of his landscape paintings is based on the prerequisite of inheritance, based on which, he achieved a new look of landscape paintings, and this new look also happens to form his unique painting style. This new look also formed his unique style of painting. His style not only contained the study of tradition, but also the sketching and observation of natural landscapes. When one looks at Wang Hui's works carefully, one will always be attracted by his rigorous hills and valleys, his unpredictable style and his rich language of brush and ink. It is worthwhile for landscape painting researchers to think y about the influence of Wang's landscape painting's antiquity on his later works, and what revelation it has for the inheritance and development of contemporary landscape painting. How to inherit the tradition and can have development and creation, and construct a new style of landscape painting with regional characteristics and the spirit of the times is undoubtedly the responsibility and mission of contemporary landscape painters.

References:

[1] Chen Chuanxi, The History of Chinese Landscape Painting [M], Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House, 1988 edition.

[2]Fu Huimin edited by Ancient Chinese Painting Theory Interpretation [M], Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House 2017.

[3] Yu Feng translates The Interpretation of Painting Theory of Wang Hui [M], Rongbaozhai Publishing House 2012.

[4]Ren Daqing. Wang Hui painting thought combing [J]. Art and Design, 2017.

Author Introduction

Cedar, landscape painting major, calligraphy enthusiast