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15th/16th C. Wen Zhengming (文徵明; 1470-1559) Chinese later period of Ming Dynasty traditional ink and color on silk painting. Signed and dated, in Autumn of the Ninth Month of Jiawu year (ca. 1534) Depicted waterside beneath wash blue mountainous landscape. Calligraphy on upper left. Matted, and wooden framed, set behind glass.
PROVENANCE: From the heirloom collections of DR. Wu Guozhen (吳國楨; October 21, 1903-June 6, 1984) was a Chinese political figure and historian, government official who served as mayor of Hankow (1932-1938), mayor of Chung-king (1939-1941), political vice minister of foreign affairs (1943-1945), mayor of Shanghai (1946-1948), and governor of Taiwan (1950-1952) and the former Chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government. He resigned in 1953 and went to the United States. K.C. Wu lived in the United States where he served as professor of Chinese history at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia. During his time in the United States, he wrote various works, including a detailed analysis on Chinese culture in the context of mythology and early history in his book The Chinese Heritage.
The second part collections of DR. Wu Guozhen (吳國楨) presented and offered up to auctions: ON DAY-1: From Lot-97 through Lot-124, and continued from Lot-204 through Lot-228. ON DAY-2: from Lot-357 through Lot-386.
LOT NOTES: Wen Zhengming (文徵明; November 28, 1470-1559) born Wen Bi, was a leading Ming dynasty painter, calligrapher, poet, and scholar. He was regarded as one of the Four Masters of Ming painting.
Wen Zhengming was born Wen Bi near present day Suzhou on November 28, 1470. He would later be known by his courtesy name, Zhengming. He had an elder brother, Wen Gui, who was born in 1469. When Zhengming was two years old, his father, Wen Lin, passed the imperial examination with the highest possible rank, jinshi. Wen Lin was assigned a government position as a magistrate in Yongjia County in Zhejiang province, and left for his job, leaving his two sons in the care of his wife, Qi Shenning. In 1476, Qi died of an illness at the age of 32. Wen Lin commissioned the noted scholar Li Dongyang to write an inscription for her tomb.
Wen Zhengming’s family was originally from a line of military men who lived in Hengshan County, Hunan province. At the time of his great great grandfather Wen Dingcong, the family moved to the city of Changzhou in the Suzhou area. Zhengming was a distant relative of the Song dynasty official Wen Tianxiang, through an ancestor who lived in Hengshan. From this he derived his hao (art name), Hengshan, which he used to sign many of his works. His father Wen Lin and his grandfather Wen Hong (Gongda) were both interested in painting. Wen Lin was also a patron of Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming s contemporary and fellow member of the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty .
In 1489, Wen Zhengming began studying under Shen Zhou, the eldest of the Four Masters and founder of the Wu school of painting, of which Wen himself later became a leading figure. Zhengming s father Wen Lin died in 1499, while working as prefect of Wenzhou. At Zhengming s request, Shen Zhou provided a written account of Wen Lin s life for the funeral.
Wen Zhengming married the daughter of a high ranking official and jinshi named Wu Yu around the year 1490. Her uncle was the artist Xia Chang, whose paintings of bamboo may have influenced Wen s own work. Little is known about Wen s wife herself, whose personal name was not recorded. After she died in 1542, Wen painted Wintry Trees after Li Cheng for a guest who arrived with a gift to mourn her death.
Around 1509 1513, Wang Xianchen, a friend of the Wen family, began construction on the Humble Administrator s Garden, generally considered one of China s greatest classical gardens. The garden is the subject of some of Wen Zhengming s poems and paintings, including an album of thirty one views painted in 1535 and a second of eight views in 1551.
Wen Zhengming s brother Wen Gui died in 1536. Zhengming s eldest son, Wen Peng, was a noted seal engraver. His second son. Wen Jia, was also an artist, as was his nephew Wen Boren (son of Wen Gui). His great grandson, Wen Zhenheng, a noted garden designer, rebuilt the Garden of Cultivation in Suzhou.