Zhou Chen
Master of precise Ming court-style landscapes
Zhou Chen(周臣) (1460–1535, some sources say around 1450–1535), courtesy name Shunqing(舜卿), also known as Dongcun(東村), was a painter during the Ming dynasty from Suzhou, Jiangsu. He studied under Chen Xian and focused on landscape and figure painting. His techniques combined styles from famous Song and Yuan painters like Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Li Tang, and Ma Yuan, forming an art style that was structurally precise and strongly executed. He was called a “court-style painter outside the court style.” His landscapes followed the Li Tang school, with rocks depicted in a solid, firm way and compositions carefully structured; his figure paintings stood out for their ancient looks and unusual postures. His representative work, "Farewell at the Firewood Gate," blends characteristics of court-style painting and literati painting and is housed in the Nanjing Museum. He also painted "Refugees," depicting twenty-four refugees in Suzhou, now lost overseas; "Nine Elders of Xiangshan," one of his few surviving blue-and-green landscapes, is in the Tianjin Museum; and "The Northern Sea" was inspired by Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering." Zhou Chen was a prolific painter, and many of his works survive. Besides pieces like "Spring Mountain Cavalry" and "Spring Spring Small Retreat" in the Palace Museum, his works are also collected by the Shanghai Museum, Jinan Museum, Tianjin Museum, as well as in Taiwan and overseas. His artistic achievement was considered second only to the “top master” Dai Jin, and he was once as famous as Dai Jin. He taught well-known artists like Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, and some say he even painted on behalf of Tang Yin. Zhou Chen, along with Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, co-founded a “sub-school of the court style” (also called the “court school”), inspired by the court paintings of the two Song dynasties while incorporating Yuan painters’ techniques.