Breaking From Orthodox Traditions
During the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), painters known as Individualists rebelled against many of the traditional rules of painting and found ways to express themselves more directly through free brushwork. While Orthodox painters such as the Six Masters focused on a style that was conservative, cautious, subtle, and complex, Individualist painters tended to produce more vigorous and vivid works of art.
The Individualist painters included Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Shitao (1641–1707), who both drew from the revolutionary ideas of transcending tradition to achieve an original style. In this way, they were more faithfully following the way of Dong Qichang than the Orthodox School, who were considered his official direct followers.
Two Birds by Bada Shanren (1650–1705)
Bada Shanren paintings feature sharp brush strokes that are attributed to the sideways manner by which he held his brush.
Painting Styles
The paintings of Bada Shanren feature sharp brush strokes, which are attributed to the sideways manner by which he held his brush. The art created by Shitao was revolutionary in its transgressions of the rigidly codified techniques and styles that dictated what was considered beautiful. In his time, imitation was valued over innovation, and although Shitao was clearly influenced by his predecessors (namely Ni Zan and Li Yong), his art breaks with theirs in several new and fascinating ways.
Pine Pavilion Near a Spring by Shitao (1675)
Shitao is one of the most famous individualist painters of the early Qing Dynasty. The art he created was revolutionary in its transgressions of the rigidly codified techniques and styles that dictated what was considered beautiful.
Shitao's formal innovations in depiction include drawing attention to the act of painting itself through his use of washes and bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, as well as an interest in subjective perspective and the use of negative or white space to suggest distance. The poetry and calligraphy that accompany his landscapes are just as vivid and irreverent as the paintings they complement. His paintings exemplify the internal contradictions and tensions of the literati or scholar-amateur artist, and they have been interpreted as an invective against art-historical canonization.
Reminiscences of Qin-Huai is one of Shitao's unique paintings. Like many paintings from the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, it deals with man's place in nature. Upon first viewing, the craggy peak in this painting seems somewhat distorted. What makes this painting so unique is that, upon closer inspection, it appears to depict the mountain bowing. A monk stands placidly on a boat that floats along the Qin-Huai river, staring up in admiration at the stone giant. The economy of respect that circulates between man and nature is explored here in a sophisticated style reminiscent of surrealism or magical realism and bordering on the absurd. Shitao himself had visited the river and the surrounding region in the 1680s, but it is unknown whether the album that contains this painting depicts specific places.
Reminiscences of Qin-Huai by Shitao
Like many of the paintings from the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Shitao's Reminiscences of Qin-Huai deals with man's place in nature.