Sketches from Life
Shen Zhou (1427-1509), who hailed from Changzhou in Jiangsu province (present-day Suzhou in Jiangsu province), had the style name Qi’nan and the sobriquets Shitian and Baishi Weng (“Stony Field” and “Elder Whitestone”). Shen grew up in a family dedicated to literary and artistic pursuits; not only did he become learned in a broad range of subjects, he also earned a reputation for being a warmhearted, sophisticated, and deeply genuine person. His accomplishments in poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting were so outstanding that he is recognized as a representative of the “Wu School” that was centered in Suzhou. Shen is listed alongside Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), Tang Yin (1470-1524), and Qiu Ying (ca. 1494-1552) as one of the “four great masters of the Ming dynasty.”
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Sketches from Life
Shen Zhou, Ming dynasty
Paper
Certified National TreasureThis “Spotlight on National Treasures” installation exhibits sixteen leaves of paintings from an album by Shen Zhou entitled “Sketches from Life,” in addition to a single leaf featuring a calligraphic inscription written in his hand. The paintings depict flowers and fruit, domestic fowl, shrimps and crabs, cats, donkeys, and other objects and creatures encountered in everyday life. Shen used his keen powers of observation to capture the forms of these living things, rendering them with a scholar’s delightful sense of refinement and grace. He wielded brush and ink to his heart’s content as he painted these works. There is a naturalness to the ink washes’ rich layering, and the subjects’ forms possess both simplicity and an abundance of spirit. Each work’s composition and layout reveals Shen’s ingenuity, allowing this album to serve as the representative work of his freehand flowers-and-birds painting. The album was certified as a National Treasure on April 25th, 2014.
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