Wen Shu: The Expression of Life Theme from the Perspective of Women

Abstract

This paper examines the life-themed flower-and-bird paintings of the Ming-dynasty woman painter Wen Shu (1595-1634), analyzing how she broke from the landscape-painting tradition of her scholarly family to develop a delicate, lyrical style of her own through albums such as Golden Stone Insects and Grass and Trees and Cold Mountain Grass and Trees and Insects, and how her choice of rare flora, spare compositions and light color rendering reflect the gentle, elegant atmosphere of a boudoir painter.