Zhang Wo
Master of Yuan iron-wire figure painting
Zhang Wo(张渥) (?-around 1356), courtesy name Shuhou(叔厚), also called Zhenqisheng(贞期生) and Jianghai Ke(江海客), was originally from Huainan (now Hefei, Anhui) and later lived in Hangzhou. He was a painter during the Yuan Dynasty. He was well-versed in literature and history, loved music, and after failing the imperial exams multiple times, he focused on poetry and painting, becoming famous for his outline drawings of figures. His figure painting followed the tradition of Li Gonglin from the Northern Song Dynasty, and he created the "Iron Wire Drawing" technique, with strong yet graceful lines that captured both form and spirit. His representative work, "Nine Songs," exists in multiple scrolls and is housed in places like the Jilin Provincial Museum, Shanghai Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in the U.S. "Visiting Dai on a Snowy Night" uses simple brushwork to depict the story of Wang Huizhi from the Eastern Jin visiting a friend on a snowy night and is in the Shanghai Museum. Other works, like "Bamboo West Cottage," have also survived. Many of his paintings are inspired by literary stories, with exquisite techniques, making him a model of Yuan Dynasty figure painting.