Artist · 10 prints
Shitao Prints
About Shitao
Shitao was a Chinese painter, calligrapher and theorist, born Zhu Ruoji in 1642 in Quanzhou county, Guangxi, and died in 1707. He was a member of the Ming imperial family, and after the Manchu conquest of 1644 overthrew the Ming he became a Buddhist monk. He travelled widely in southern China, lived in Nanjing and spent nearly three years in Beijing, then settled in Yangzhou from about 1693 until his death.
Shitao is counted among the leading Individualist painters of the early Qing dynasty, artists who broke from the habit of copying old masters. He insisted on finding his own way, writing that he always used his own method. His ideas are set out in his Sayings on Painting from Monk Bitter Gourd, which treats the "single brushstroke" as the root of all painting. His landscapes and flower studies use free, expressive brushwork, washes and open space. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds his album Returning Home (around 1695). Shitao is often compared with Bada Shanren, another painter of Ming royal descent.
Shitao prints: reproductions of Chinese ink and colour landscape paintings by the early Qing painter Shitao, made in the late 1600s and around 1700. The collection includes Reminiscences of Qinhuai River (Tall Ochre Peak), Wilderness Colors (Peach Blossom Bank and Two Sails), Wilderness Colors (Wild Geese over the Lake), Landscapes of the Four Seasons (Wild Geese and a Hilltop Pavilion) and Outing to Zhang Gong's Grotto.
This selection is made up mainly of album leaves from two sets, Reminiscences of Qinhuai River and Wilderness Colors. They show rivers, cliffs, pavilions, sails and small figures, painted with loose brushwork and soft washes. The colour is unusual for Chinese ink painting: ochre cliffs, pink ridges, blue-green pines and peach blossom.
The soft colours and open space suit bedrooms, studies, offices and quiet living rooms, and two or three leaves from the same album hang well together. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
