Back to page 9 Chinese Literati Painting -- Page 10 To page 11
Shen Zhou & the Yuan Masters
Shen Zhou was noted for the extremely broad range of styles he commanded. He devoted himself to painting as the sole focus of his life -- he was an accomplished poet, but undertook no government responsibilities or other arduous employment. Although Shen often painted in a simple style, his technical skills as a painter were on a par with academic masters - as will be confirmed, for example, by viewing his early work, "Lofty Mt. Lu," which he painted for his teacher Chen Kuan, a man who was himself both a literati poet and an artist. (Chen is pictured standing near the bottom of the painting, framed against a background of flowing water.) Shen Zhou's exceptional skills gained him many kinds of financial support from family, friends, and patrons, and he taught many students as well.
The styles Shen Zhou mastered first were those of the various great Yuan literati painters, and their influence is clearly visible throughout his life. Shen Zhou painted many works that could easily have been mistaken for original Yuan paintings, but they were never regarded as plagiarized imitations or "mere" copies. The high valuation of tradition made it acceptable for painters to go so far as to produce precise replicas of "classical" models -- it was as if, having absorbed through practice the techniques of these older masters, the later imitator had in fact "embodied" the model, and the replica was as much a form of his own self-expression as the original had been of the master's.
Compare the following two paintings. The first is an unusually bold wet brush experiment by the Yuan master Wu Zhen, who is discussed on page 7 (there is some doubt as to whether Wu Zhen himself painted it, however). The one below is by Shen Zhou. Note how both the brush technique, the general rendering of nature, and the theme of the solitary traveler, armed with an umbrella, braced against the forces of nature are common to both. Is Shen Zhou's painting a "Neo-Daoist-style" expression of his unique genius, or "Confucian" self-shaping through imitation?
