Art Magnet-Fuchun Mountains

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (Wu-yung Version) Huang Kung-wang (1269-1354), Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) Handscroll, ink on paper, 33 x 636.9 cm Huang Kung-wang (original name Lu Chien) went by the style name Tzu-chiu and sobriquets Ta-ch’ih and I-feng tao-jen. A native of Ch'ang-shu, Kiangsu, he came from a poor family and was orphaned at an early age. Huang Le of Yung-chia was 90-years-old at the time and without a male heir. Appreciating the talents of the young boy, he treated the child as his own. The Lu family thereupon consented to allow Huang to adopt him and carry on the Huang name. Huang exclaimed by saying "Old Man Huang has always longed for a son," which became the basis of Huang Kung-wang's style name, which translates literally as "Huang's Longing for a Son." Huang Kung-wang was exceptionally gifted as a youth, mastering the Chinese classics at an early age. He also studied Taoism and later became a follower of the Ch'uan-chen sect. Traveling throughout the Sungkiang and Hangchow regions, he made a living by fortune-telling. Like his interest in calligraphy and music, painting was an activity practiced on the side. His landscape paintings are based on the manners of Tung Yuan and Chu-jan, 10th-century artists who depicted the soft rolling landscape of the south. Along with Wu Chen (1280-1354), Ni Tsan (1301-1374), and Wang Meng (1308-1385), Huang Kung-wang is considered one of the Four Great Masters of the Yuan and revered as their spiritual leader.