| dc.description.abstract | Paintings of children already began to develop in the Tang Dynasty, but later on their imagery was based mostly on the late Tang poet Lu Deyan’s (路德延, c. 898-924) Haiershi (孩兒詩 or Poems on Children). They reached the height of fashion during the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the subgenre of paintings of children known as yingxitu (嬰戲圖) or “children at play” inherited but also further expanded the traditional themes and pictorial motifs, but they also catered more to popular taste, with an admixture of things appealing to adults. Living in the turmoil in the mid-nineteenth century, Wang Su was a well-known artist in Yangzhou. Wang Su is considered the greatest practitioner of this kind of painting in the later Qing Dynasty.
This paper will focus on Wang Su’s paintings of children, his biography, and the development of his painting style. The Taiping Rebellion is a turning point in Wang Su’s life and art. Therefore, the first chapter will refer to contemporaneous books, paintings, letters, and other information to discuss pre-1863 Yangzhou (揚州), where Wang Su lived, his biography, his social circles, as well as the origin, development, establishment, and transformation of his painting style. The second chapter will discuss the heritage of paintings of children and Wang Su’s innovations on them during his middle age. First of all, the characteristics of the times presented in Wang Su’s paintings will be explored. Then, taking Wang Su’s masterpiece, Baizi yingxitu (百子嬰戲圖 or “One Hundred Children at Play”) as an example, this paper will explore how Wang Su’s painting inherits the Haiershi imagery and the subject-matter of the “hundred children at play” subgenre, how Wang Su made use of other popular yingxitu in the Ming and Qing dynasties, how the paintings relate with Wang Su’s other works, and what Wang’s innovations were. The third chapter will explore Wang Su’s painting style and changes in his later years (1863-1877), as well as his emphasis on sketching. Furthermore, attention that he paid to the special group of “rural children” in the mid-nineteenth century will be discussed. Subsequently, this paper will continue to discuss his portrayal of village children’s herding work through his later paintings of children. Last but not least, the influence of Wang Su on later generations will be studied as well. | en_US |