Zhou Chen

Zhou Chen

Zhou Chen (1460 – 1535), named Shunqing, is a famous painter in Ming Dynasty. Wu (now Suzhou, Jiangsu) people. He is good at painting.

Author information

He was a famous professional painter in the middle of Ming Dynasty. He lived from Chenghua to Jiajing. Shunqing, named Dongcun, was born in Wu (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province) and died in 1535. He is good at painting figures and landscapes, with strict and meticulous painting techniques. He has two famous students, one is Tang Yin, the other is Qiu Ying. Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were very similar in style, but they were more famous than their teachers at that time.

Zhou Chenshan inherited Chen Xian. He has assiduously copied Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Li Tang, Ma Yuan and other works, mainly from the Li Tang faction. The stone painting is firm, the composition is rigorous, and the pen is skillful. He and Dai Jin had their own strengths. Figure painting is also very excellent, ancient appearance strange posture, dense Xiao San, each extremely mood. The painting of farewell at chaimen, a representative work of Zhou Chen collected by Nanjing Museum, depicts a literati's reluctant parting after visiting friends with Qin. The bright moon has been hanging high in the sky, and the boatman has been sleeping in the bow of the boat until the guests are about to get on the boat. It shows that the time of farewell and the depth of friendship between the host and the guest are long, which also contains the "Yuanti painting" and "literati painting" of Zhou Chen's painting style The integration of "painting". Zhou Chen is known as a non academic "academic" painter.

Works spread

Zhou Chen is a prolific painter with many works handed down. Only the Shanghai Museum collects 7 large-scale works such as "the journey of the spring mountain" and 14 small fan pages. The Palace Museum collects "the riding of the spring mountain" and "the hidden picture of the spring spring spring mountain". Jinan museum also collects "visiting friends" and some works in major museums in Taiwan and abroad. Zhou Chen's works, which have been handed down to the present day, are well-organized and meticulous.

market price

Tang Yin and Qiu Ying came from Zhou Chen's family. They are outstanding in style. Later generations think that after Tang Yin became famous, he often asked Zhou Chen to write on his behalf, which may not be credible. Tang Yin and Zhou Yin have much in common. It was later generations who dug up the seal of Zhou paintings for profit and changed them to Tang paintings. Neither of them should be responsible. Shanghai Museum has the axis of "the view of waterfalls", which is very skillful and is called a masterpiece. At that time, people thought that Zhou was not as famous as Tang Dynasty, so they dug out Zhou's name and made a birthday gift with a fake Tang pen.

Now it seems that although Zhou Chen is not as famous as Tang Yin, his works are not much cheaper than Tang Yin's in the art market. Taking Christie's auction in New York on November 28, 1990 as an example, Zhou Chen's and Tang Yin's works were sold at the same time. Zhou Chen's landscape painting "overlooking Jianglu" was sold for 140 million US dollars, while Tang Yin's works were only half of the price. Of course, this is also related to the quality of the works themselves. Generally speaking, Tang Yin's works are more expensive than Zhou Chen's, and all future generations admire them.

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Chen