16 Facts About Shen Zhou

Shen Zhou, courtesy names Qinan and Shitian, was a Chinese painter in the Ming dynasty.

Shen Zhou lived during the post-transition period of the Yuan conquest of the Ming.

Shen Zhou's family worked closely with the government and maintained its wealthy status.

Shen Zhou was a contributor to the more individualist Wu School of Chinese art.

Shen Zhou was born into a wealthy family in Xiangcheng, near the thriving city of Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province, China.

Shen Zhou thus renounced the life of official service while still preserving his reputation in an enduring act of filial piety.

Shen Zhou was privileged that he could paint what he wanted, since he was rich and therefore did not require a wealthy patron and sponsor.

Shen Zhou lived at a pivotal point in the history of Chinese painting, and contributed greatly to the artistic tradition of China, founding the new Wu School in Suzhou.

Shen Zhou's scholarly upbringing and artistic training had instilled in him a reverence for China's historical tradition that influenced both his life and his art from an early age.

Shen Zhou was accomplished in history and the classics, and his paintings reveal a disciplined obedience to the styles of the Yuan dynasty, to China's history, and to the orthodox Confucianism that he embodied in his filial life.

Shen Zhou is most famous for his landscapes and for his "boneless" renderings of flowers, which are meticulously created in the style of the Yuan masters.

Shen Zhou possessed a large collection of paintings from the late Yuan and early Ming, which he and his scholar-painter colleagues used as models in forging the revivalist approach of the Wu style.

Shen Zhou frequently combined experimental elements with the more rigid styles of the Yuan masters.

Shen Zhou never coveted his paintings, although they were frequently coveted and imitated by others.

Shen Zhou's paintings depicts soaring mountains and towering trees, while human works are reduced to specks in this immensity.

Shen Zhou is usually contrasted with Wu Wei, a painter that places humankind as the center of attention in his paintings.