Chapter 55 Su Hanchen

Children are innocent, lively and lovely, so they are naturally good subjects for painting. Among the paintings and folk paintings of some anonymous artists, there are a large number of excellent paintings on children's themes, such as "Hundred Sons Playing in Spring" and "Spring Scenery Playing Babies" by Anonymous in Song Dynasty "Putting Jujube Picture", "Playing Bird Picture", "Ten Never Idle" and "Liansheng Takako" in New Year paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties, etc.However, there are very few painters who are famous for painting children.Zhang Xuan in the Tang Dynasty was good at painting children, but mainly ladies; Liu Zongdao in the Song Dynasty painted "Picture of Children in a Basin", but there are not many such works.Su Hanchen of the Song Dynasty was the most famous painter of children's paintings.

Su Hanchen, the year of birth and death is unknown.Born in Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan) in the Northern Song Dynasty.One is said to be from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang).Painter at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty.In the Northern Song Dynasty, he was in waiting for the imperial edict of the painting academy, and after the Nandu, he was still waiting for the imperial edict of the art academy. At the beginning of Longxing's painting of Buddha statues, he was awarded the imperial edict and made up for Xinlang.He is a figure painter, good at painting Buddhism and Taoism, ladies, especially children.His painters were Liu Zonggu, Zhang Xuan, Zhou Fang, Du Xiao, Zhou Wenju, etc. His ladies mostly painted the attitudes of ladies in the boudoir, and most of his works were pictures of babies playing.The children he painted are innocent and lively. "Baby Painting Record" said: "As a baby, Su Hanchen is deeply familiar with his appearance, and even more expressive." According to the history of painting, he has painted many children's paintings, such as "Baby Fighting Crickets", "Baby Playing Bath", " Playing Baby Picture", "Baby Playing Merchant" and so on.

His paintings are handed down to us today, including "The Picture of Children Playing in the Autumn Court", "The Picture of the Shopkeeper", "The Picture of Five Ruis", "The Picture of Percussion Music", "The Picture of Hundred Sons Playing" and so on.