Wang Ximeng
Created monumental blue-green landscape masterpiece
Wang Ximeng, born around 1095, with the date of death unknown, was a painter in the Northern Song court. There are no clear written records of Wang Ximeng’s birth and death. Based on the colophon by Cai Jing at the end of 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains,' it’s estimated that Wang Ximeng was born around 1095. He became an apprentice in the imperial painting academy at the age of sixteen or seventeen and later worked in the palace archives, during which he often presented his paintings to Emperor Huizong of Song. The emperor admired his talent and personally guided him in painting techniques. In the third year of the Zhenghe era (1113), at just eighteen years old, Wang Ximeng spent less than half a year to complete the famous masterpiece 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.' Some scholars, based on details like the patterns on a Northern Song bronze bell cast in the eighth year of Zhenghe (1118), speculate that Wang Ximeng died no later than 1118. Wang Ximeng’s only surviving work is 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.' It is painted on silk, measuring 51.1 cm in height and 1,191.5 cm in width, using mineral pigments like azurite and malachite. The painting went through multiple collections over time — from the Southern Song imperial collection to Yuan dynasty collector Li Pu Guang, and then to the Qianlong imperial collection during the Qing dynasty. It is now housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing. According to Song Luo’s 'Quatrain on Painting' from the Qing dynasty, Wang Ximeng died shortly after completing 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.' As for the cause of death, one story says he overworked on his painting and fell ill, while another rumor claims he angered Emperor Huizong and was executed.