CHINA - Painters of eremitic themes: fourteenth to seventeenth centuries

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The increasing specializatipn of artistic themes by Chinese authories in this period called for treatments that supported the empire. These works reveal a tacit dissent from notions bolstering the state to notions celebrating nature (free from imperial and social contrivance). This is the dichotomy between "professional" painters and "amateur" painters in this era. But in the world of art, the differences are themselves contrived. Most of the amateurs, the dissenters, are themselves "professionals" simply expressing their true feelings, masqueraded as occasional breaks in theme.
The favorite eremitic themes of nature contain what today we would call memes, that is, certain symbolically-loaded subjects suggesting, in this case, support or celebration of eremitism. The titles of these paintings are suggestive, sometimes outright celebratory. Nature is the context; isolated mountains represent solitude. Within these mountainous settings are the huts, dwellings, and avocations of hermits: fishermen, poets, writers, qin players, meditatators -- these are overt hermits in natural settings, from solitary occupations to outright hermit life.
Here, too, is a portrait of Shengong, the mythical founder-king of China according to Taoist legend, whose governance was so perfect that the people forgot that they were subjects. Shengong was a master herbalist, shaman, and agriculturalist who plowed his own fields, garnering the esteem of the people. And there is a sketch of the philosopher Lao-tzu, founder of Taoism, here depicted riding an ox to disappear at the end of his days into the Western mountains.
The paintings evolve from simple landscapes to more complex landscapes, culminating in representative sketches with hurried brush-stroke in Shitao. Shitao spent his lifetime seeking a patron for his Buddhist eremitism, then becoming a Taoist hermit with a darker and more distinctly "amateur" perspective.

WORKS REPRESENTED

1. Huang Gongwang (Lu Jian, 1269-1354): "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains"
2. Wu Zhen (1280–1354): "Fisherman"
3. Wu Zhen: "Hermit Fisherman on Lake Dongting"
4. Wu Zhen: "Ease in [or Living in] Mountains"
5. Ni Zhan (1301–1374): "Wind Among the Trees on the Riverbank"
6. Ni Zhan: "Enjoying the Wilderness in an Autumn Grove"
7. Ni Zhan: "Dwelling Amidst Water and Bamboo"
8. Wang Meng (1308–1385): "The Simple Retreat"
9. Wang Meng: "Writing Books Under the Pine Trees"
10. Dai Jin (Tai Chin,1388-1462): "The Hermit Xu You Resting by a Stream"
11. Dai Jin: "Returning late from a Spring Outing"
12. Shen-Zhou (1427–1509): "Chanting Poems in Leisure Among Pines"
13. Shen-Zhou: "Poet on a Mountaintop"
14. Shen-Zhou: "Peach Blossom Study"
15. Guo Xu (1456-1532): "Shengong" - mythical Taoist king-founder
16. Zhang Lu (1464-1538): "Laozi [Lao-tzu] Riding an Ox"
17. Tang-Yin (1470-1524): "Reclusion by the Eastern Hedge"
18. Tang Yin: "Scholar Playing the Qin"
19. Tang Yin: "Fishermen in Reclusion"
20. Tang Yin: "Wuyangzi in Self-cultivation"
21. Tang Yin: "Thatched Cottage in Western Mountains"
22. Shitao (1642–1707): "Appreciating Chrysanthemum"
23. Shitao: "Man Alone"
24. Shitao: "The Hermit Lodge in the Middle of the Table"
25. Shitao: "Conversation with the Mountain"
26. Shitao: "A Friend of Solitary Trees"
27. Shitao: "The Lonely Mountain"
28. Shitao: "The Hermitage at the Foot of the Mountains"