Landscape

Wu Xizeng, (style names include Jing Ding and Jing Hu) native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province was a famous Chinese painter. He joined the Institute of Chinese Painting at the age of 17 and was tutored by masters such as Jing Cheng and Chen Shizeng. He started with learning the style of Wang Hui’s, later widened his interests to other old masters. Wu specialised and was very skilful in landscape painting. He taught at Jinghua Art College and National Beiping School of Art and held important positions, such as the Deputy Director of Beijing Painting Academy and Director of the Association of Chinese Artists. This excellent piece of his early work, painted at age of 18, depicts a mist- enshrouded landscape with distant mountains and foreground houses shaded by lakeside trees, a much preferred secluded retreat for the literati. The creation of a seemingly eternal space is achieved by carefully planning a balanced composition of the high and the low, the near and the far, using varied density of ink and colour.

Asian Art Department, AGNSW, April 2013.