Qian Xuan

Not to be confused with Qiao Xuan.

Qián Xuǎn
Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains (浮玉山居)
Born	1235
Died	1305
Occupation	Painter

Qian Xuan (simplified Chinese: 钱选; traditional Chinese: 錢選; pinyin: Qián Xuǎn; Wade–Giles: Ch'ien Hsüan; 1235–1305), courtesy name Shun Ju (舜举), pseudonyms Yu Tan (玉潭, "Jade Pool"), Xi Lanweng (习嬾翁), and Zha Chuanweng (霅川翁), was a Chinese painter from Huzhou (湖州), the present day Wuxing District in Zhejiang. He lived during the late Song dynasty and early Yuan dynasty.

Biography

Qian Xuan started as an aspiring scholar-official during the rule of the Southern Song (960–1279). However, he had difficulty climbing the ranks of officialdom. When the Mongol-founded Yuan dynasty took over the southern regions of China in 1276, he effectively gave up on the idea of a career in civil administration. In 1286, his friend Zhao Mengfu found and accepted a position there, and so for a time it seemed he could as well. However, he refused on patriotic grounds, while he cited old age to avoid difficulties. He nevertheless was considered a Song loyalist.

His life after 1276 was devoted to painting, and he became noted as a "fur and feathers" painter. He was also adept at bird-and-flower painting, character painting, and landscape painting (shan shui). He is known for landscapes that hinted at a longing for a return of native Chinese rule, such as in the work Home Again. He mixed Song realism with an archaic Tang style.

Works

• 
  Wang Xizhi, by Qian Xuan (1235-1305 AD)
• 
  Yang Guifei Mounting a Horse, by Qian Xuan (1235-1305 AD)
• 
  Early Autumn
• 

References

• Masterpieces of Chinese Art (page 87), by Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper, Todtri Productions, 1997. ISBN 1-57717-060-1
• Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui (辞海编辑委员会). Ci hai (辞海). Shanghai: Shanghai ci shu chu ban she (上海辞书出版社), 1979.

External links

Media related to Qian Xuan at Wikimedia Commons

• Qian Xuan and his Painting Gallery at China Online Museum
• Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with three of his paintings
• Sung and Yuan paintings, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Qian Xuan (see list of paintings)