Chapter 28 Section 4 Shanghai School of Painting

After the mid-19th century, Shanghai, as a major trading port on the southeast coast, became increasingly prosperous.Merchants and bureaucrats gathered here, as did painters from all over the world, such as Zhang Xiong, Ren Xiong, Zhao Zhiqian, Ren Xun, Hu Gongshou, Qian Hui'an, Xu Gu, Pu Hua, Ren Yi, Wu Shixian, Ni Tian, ​​Ren Yu, Wu Changshuo and other painters , all in and out of Shanghai.In the history of art, this group of painters is called "Shanghai School of Painting" or "Shanghai School".Although they do not have a common program of activities and their painting styles are not the same, they all oppose Chen Chen Xiangyin in artistic creation and have an enterprising and innovative spirit.They adapt to the needs of the general public in emerging cities, endow the pictures with more sensory pleasure and emotion, and create a new style that appeals to both refined and popular tastes. The emergence of the "Shanghai School" revived the sharp decline of painting in the late Qing Dynasty, and had a great impact on the development of Chinese painting in the past century.Among them, Xu Gu, Pu Hua, Ren Yi, and Wu Changshuo are known as the "Four Heroes of the Sea" and are the main representatives of the Shanghai School of Painting.

Xugu (1823-1896 A.D.) was born in Shexian County, Anhui Province. His original surname was Zhu and his last name was Huairen.When he was young, he served as a general in the Qing army. Later, he "felt touched, so he went into the mountain." After becoming a monk, he changed his name to Xubai, whose name was Xugu, and was nicknamed Ziyang Shanmin.Xu Gu lived in Yangzhou and Suzhou, but he often went to Shanghai and had close contacts with Ren Bonian, Hu Gongshou, Wu Changshuo and others.He made a living by selling paintings, lived a life of poverty, and never bent his waist for money.According to the record of "Ink Forest on the Sea", Xugu "lingered around for several months when he came to Shanghai, and there were a lot of people seeking painting, and he would go when he was tired."Finally passed away in Suzhou Shibi Temple.

Xu Gu's paintings are unique.He can paint landscapes, flowers, fruits and vegetables, poultry and fish, as well as portraits.He has learned a lot from Xin'an School of painting, which is cool and easy, and likes to use thirsty brushes, etc., but he has his own style.Wu Changshuo praised him for "breaking the past and the present with one punch".Xu Gu seldom uses splashed ink, and only uses the shape of brush lines to capture the meaning and charm.For example, the small animals he likes to paint - squirrels, are mostly painted with dry hair, and get agility from layer upon layer dyeing or rubbing.He likes to use hard brushes, even hardened pens.The lines that make up the skeleton of the picture are often only drawn with scorched ink, intermittently, sometimes slowly and sometimes slowly;The lines of the pen are shown in the direction of breaking and falling.Straight, strong, rigid, rather than bent, twists and turns, stagnant and vigorous.Xu Gu also likes to use colors in his paintings, mostly with elegant and cool tones, and rarely use rich and warm colors.Occasionally, strong contrasting colors are used to make the picture look novel, elegant and moving.Xugu's calligraphy is slender and thin, and he likes dry brushwork, which is often astringent and stagnant. His style is just like his paintings.But unlike Zhao Zhiqian or Wu Changshuo, he devoted his whole life to calligraphy, and used calligraphy to paint to influence the style of painting.Instead, he used paintings to write books—the cold and elegant style of painting influenced his calligraphy style.

There are many handed down works of Xugu, among which are "Plum Blossom Goldfish Picture" (now in the National Art Museum of China), "Pine Chrysanthemum Picture" (now in the Suzhou Museum), "Loquat Picture" (now in the Nanjing Museum) and so on.In addition, he wrote "Monk Xugu's Poetry Records" handed down to the world. Pu Hua (1832-1911 A.D.) was born in Jiaxing County, Zhejiang Province. His original name was Cheng, and his style name was Zuoying.When I was young, my family was poor, and I once wished for the temple.Self-study hard, and then he can write poetry, paint and write.The middle-aged traveler traveled to Ningbo, Taizhou and other places, and lived in Shanghai for more than ten years in his later years, selling paintings for self-sufficiency.It is said that he often wears short gowns and long gowns, and his whole body smells of oil, so he is known as "pu sloppy".But he is very talented and elegant Guqin. Whenever he encounters a good one, he will buy it and treasure it. He calls his living room "Nine Qin and Ten Inkstone Studio".Pu Hua's painting subjects are diverse, not only can he paint landscapes and flowers, but he is also good at writing ink and bamboo.The brush is sparse and indulgent, and he likes to use a wet brush to sweep straight. He is proficient in ink painting and has a strong breath.His paintings are dripping with ink, majestic and full of interest.Calligraphy is like a cone scratching the sand, and the wild grass is like a dragon and a snake, which is very stubborn.It is said that he once traveled east to Japan, and his calligraphy and painting were especially valued by foreigners.There are many works of Pu Hua, such as "Bamboo and Stone Picture" and "Tongyin Gaoshi Picture" in the Jiaxing County Museum; "Five-color Peony Picture" and "Lotus Picture" in the Shanghai Museum, etc., are all his masterpieces.In addition, Pu Hua is also good at poetry, and his meaning is quite bold. There is a collection of poems "Fu Rong An Xian [Xian Xian] Yu Cao" which is popular in the world.

Ren Bonian (1840-1896 A.D.) was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, named Yi, styled Bonian, and Xiaolou.Father Ren Hesheng (named Songyun) is a folk painter who is good at painting portraits.Influenced by his father since childhood, Ren Bonian loved painting. In the winter of 1861, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army marched eastward. The 22-year-old Ren Bonian once served in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Army. painting.From middle age, he began to sell paintings in Shanghai, and the name of the paintings gradually spread all over the country. Among the painters of the Shanghai School, Ren Bonian is the one with the most talent, the most comprehensive painting skills and the most extensive influence.In terms of figure painting, he is the only master since Chen Hongshou in the early Qing Dynasty; his flower and bird paintings are not only famous for their variety, but also famous for their freshness, beauty, liveliness and vividness in the history of painting; With hills and ravines, the scenery is myriad, and sometimes the landscape and the figures are integrated, giving the landscape scenery more human fireworks.Ren Bonian was also obsessed with making purple clay teapots.Zheng Yimei's "Xiaoyangqiu" records that he saw a neighbor who likes to make a purple sand pipe, "suddenly triggered, he obtained high-quality purple sand, used it as a tea pot, wine cup, and various utensils, and engraved books and paintings on it..." and even " Painting is useless, and there is no food for cooking."In addition, he also made a clay statue of his father Ren Songyun, "sitting sideways with cage sleeves, as if he was alive."Although this was caused by Ren Bonian's whim, we can see his artistic temperament and various artistic talents.

Ren Bonian's portraits were regarded as the number one master in the Qing Dynasty.Initially educated by his father.After arriving in Shanghai, Ren Bonian had close contacts with Liu Dezhai, the director of Tushanwan Library in Xujiahui, Shanghai Catholic Church. Liu was good at Western sketching, which had a certain influence on Ren Bonian's sketching quality.Traditional portrait techniques combined with a certain degree of Western sketch foundation give Ren Bonian a solid modeling foundation.Therefore, the portraits he painted are all accurate in structure and full of form and spirit.The most famous portrait works include "The Portrait of Gao Yong" in the Palace Museum in Beijing, and "The Shabby Portrait" in the Zhejiang Museum.

Ren Bonian's figure paintings include historical stories, ladies and children, myths and legends, ancient celebrities, Tang and Song poetry and real figures, covering a wide range of subjects, which are rare among figure painters in the past dynasties.Some are adapted to the needs of the painting seekers, expressing auspicious wishes or traditional stories, such as "Zhong Kui", "Magu Xianshou", "Su Wu Shepherd", "Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust" and so on; Either directly depict the reality, or use the past to describe the present, such as the "Three Friends Picture" hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing, which depicts himself, Zhu Jintang, and Zeng Fengji sitting in monk clothes.At that time, it was the 240th anniversary of the death of Ming Dynasty in Guangxu Jiashen (1884 A.D.), and it seemed to have the meaning of offering sacrifices to death.Another example is "Guanghe Xiaosuo" (now in the Nanjing Museum) written in June of Guangxu Yiyou (AD 1885). In the picture, a person and a horse are standing on the hillside facing the audience, as if they are taking a rest on the way to climb the mountain.The man put one hand at his waist, and held the bamboo branch for driving the horse on the horse's back with the other.Wearing a fur cap, wearing a leather robe, and wearing leather boots, looking up to the sky, several wild geese stretched their necks and flew away into the distance.The fat horse seemed to understand its owner's thoughts very well, and turned its head to look into the distance.On the upper right side of the picture, the artist inscribed "Guanhe looks bleak".There are different opinions in the academic circles about what the work expresses. Some people think that it shows the longing for the homeland of the conquerors; Expressing a feeling of sadness and loneliness; some people think it is a historical allusion.Regardless of the explanation, Ren Bonian's repeated painting of this subject has a meaning.Weaving desolate mountain roads, lonely recruits, empty sky, and low-flying mourners organically into the picture, there is always a sense of desolation and depression.

In Ren Bonian's figure painting, he learned from Ren Xun for the first time, and Ren Xunyuan learned from Chen Hongshou in the late Ming and early Qing. After the 1980s, Ren Bonian gradually got rid of the modeling and brushwork of Chen Hongshou and Ren Xun, and his style tended to be elegant and elegant. Coloring, forming his unique personal style. Flower and bird painting occupies the largest proportion in Ren Bonian's works, and has a wider influence.His early flower-and-bird paintings are similar to Chen Hongshou's double-tick coloring method, and slightly closer to Yun Nantian's boneless flower painting. After the mid-1970s, the small freehand brushwork style incorporating watercolor painting gradually matured and became the mainstream.Its basic characteristics are that the brushwork is dripping and frustrating, the colors are bright and elegant, the momentum and charm are in harmony, lively, fresh and elegant.In terms of composition, there are large-scale masterpieces and lyrical sketches.He likes to use raw Xuan as well as cooked paper and silk.Any use of Shengxuan, the vertical and horizontal flying of multi-strokes, the flickering of light ink thirsty fronts, or the combination of hook and splash, are indulgent and smooth.Where silk base (or cooked rice paper) is used, there are more water, more light ink, more light color, more boneless method and modified watercolor method.The image is not smudged but dotted; it retains water marks, shows transparency, dilutes the profound and main effect, and highlights the flatness and indifference.

In Ren Bonian's flower and bird works, he also pays great attention to the movement and expression of flowers and birds, as well as the atmosphere and mood of the painting, which always endows the works with vividness and interest.For example, "Red Maple Singing Sparrow" depicts autumn branches hanging upside down, sparse red leaves and interlaced branches shaking in the gust of wind.Two little sparrows stood silently among the branches, and another one twittered and hurriedly flew towards its companion against the wind. Its body was surrounded by cliffs and crags.The desolate autumn scenery and the struggling birds make people feel the vitality of life.

Wu Changshuo (1844-1927 A.D.) was originally named Jun, also known as Junqing, with the word Changshuo.Another name is Fou [fou No] Lu, Kutie, Lao Fou, Da Deaf, Shi Zunzhe, Pohe Pavilion Chief, etc. After the age of 70, he lived in the world with calligraphy.He was born in a scholarly family in Zhang [zhang Zhang] Wu Village, Anji County, Zhejiang Province.Both his grandfather and father were Juren.Wu Changshuo was able to write parallel prose at the age of eight, and sharpened his knife and engraved seals at the age of ten.In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860 A.D.), the family suffered from military turmoil, and the family business was ruined.Then study hard.He studied philology and Confucian classics, and once asked Yu Quyuan, a master of Confucian classics.According to legend, Wu Changshuo once got Mr. Yu's four characters of "professionalism and diligence", and regarded them as treasures. Put it at the bottom of the box, and now it’s lost, so you don’t worry about it, why?” Wu Changshuo replied, “Why worry, I’ve already hung Mr. Yu’s words on my heart, isn’t it better than hanging on the wall?” He said At the age of 22, he passed the examination as a scholar, but he never wanted to be famous, so he devoted himself to studying gold and stone, calligraphy and painting. At the age of 29, he moved to Suzhou and got to know many famous collectors and art masters in Suzhou and Shanghai. At the same time, he came into contact with a large number of ancient Yi wares and celebrity calligraphy, making great progress in art. After the age of 50, Ding Lansun, a fellow villager, pitied him for his poor life and elected him as the county magistrate of Andong, Jiangsu.At that time, there were many bandits in the north of the Yangtze River, and they were hard to arrest, and they were loose in nature, unwilling to flatter them, so they resigned after one month as an official.From then on, he painted Shanghai, endured hardships and endured poverty, and once took the title of "poor captain" to laugh at himself.During this period, he interacted with famous Shanghai masters Ren Bonian, Pu Hua, Hu Gongshou, Lu Lianfu, etc. They often appraised and studied calligraphy, painting, gold and stone together, and forged a deep friendship.Based on gold, stone and calligraphy, he integrated poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing into one furnace, creating a unique style of painting, which made him a master of literati painting in the modern painting circle.

Wu Changshuo's poems are quick and well-written, as easy as they come in handy, natural and clear, simple and unpretentious, poets sing together, always get ahead of others, and come up with new ideas, which is convincing. In Wu Changshuo's calligraphy, he learned from Zhong Yao in his early years, and in his middle age, his regular script tended to Huangshan Valley, and his cursive strokes were pure and natural.His clerical script has a long structure, strong and simple style of writing.His seal script is said to be unique in the world.Ziyun: "Yu Xuezhuan likes to come to the stone drum, and has been engaged in it for decades, and the state of the day is day by day." Before he was 40 or 50 years old, he came to the stone drum, followed the rope and ink, and stippled.After middle age, one gradually loses one's shape, and one's self-identity is established around the age of 60, and one reaches the superb state of retaining one's appearance and taking one's spirit by the age of seventy or eighty. Wu Changshuo's seal cutting is closely related to the Zhejiang and Anhui schools, and far away from the Qin and Han seal bowls.Because of his profound and solid skills in seal and composition, when engraving the knife, he can fuse it with his heart, concentrate his strength on his wrists, and use a blunt knife to penetrate hard, as fast as a wind and thunder, in one go, and then modify it a little.Both the brushwork and the taste of the knife are present, and the ancient times are not grouped, and the spirit is extraordinary. Wu Changshuo learned painting at the age of 34. On the basis of learning from others, he created a new world in the broad-brush freehand brushwork painting school.The biggest feature of his paintings is that he uses ancient and simple seal script brushes to paint, sweeping away the disadvantages of frivolity, delicacy, and femininity, and being independent from the world.His use of color is not out of the ordinary, and he likes to use western red, the so-called "reckless rouge". The deep red is as thick as ink, which adds a moving vitality to his ancient, simple and majestic painting style. Wu Changshuo painted plum blossoms, orchids, vines, lotus, peaches, and chrysanthemums most often, and he also interspersed with landscape figures. For example, in the "Shuo Peach Picture" collected by the Shanghai Museum, a peach branch bent by the fruit hangs in the picture, with the peach leaves facing the back, in a whirling posture.Among the clusters of thick ink leaves, there are dark red peaches.The inscription on the right side of the painting reads: "Blooming peach blossoms, and the color of the [cheng support] is like wine. Once opened for three thousand years, it is as strong as a bucket. Yimaoqiu Wu Changshuo".This painting should be his 72-year-old work.Both the inscription and the genus have become part of the composition, and they have the beauty of creating a picture.In the upper left corner of the picture, the words "Manqian moved here" are written, which seems to make people think that these huge peaches are really fairy peaches that Manqian moved from the sky for 3000 years.Simple, concise, thick and dignified, it shows the inner beauty in the gloom. Wu Changshuo's plum paintings are not out of the ordinary.He often said: "The ancients are the guest and I are the main ones. The brush is used to spit out the sky, and the leaves are danced to the sword. The tree does not touch the soil, so why should the stone be repaired." It highlights the iron bones of new branches and old stems, and the vitality of flowers that are just about to bloom.For example, in "The Picture of Ink Plum Blossoms", Lao Gan uses scorched ink and dry brushes to write, alternating forward and reverse, with vertical and horizontal branches, extremely vigorous.The flowers are circled with scorched ink, delicate and full, backed by new branches and fallen flowers in light ink.It makes the whole painting thick and simple, and there seems to be a sense of humbleness blowing towards the face, which is not a sentimental charm. Wu Changshuo died of illness in Shanghai in November 1927 at the age of 84.He left a large number of paintings, calligraphy, and engraving works to future generations, and albums such as "Selected Paintings of Wu Changshuo" and "Collection of Wu Changshuo's Works" have been handed down to the world.In addition, he also wrote a lot of works, including "Cutting Gu (gu Gu) Lu Yin Cun", "Bitter Iron Broken Gold", "Yuan Gai Yu Lu Ou Cun", "Fou Lu Collection", "Fou Lu Bie Cun" "Wait.