QIAN XUAN

'Qián Xuǎn' (1235-1305) was a Song loyalist painter from Zhejiang. He started as an aspiring scholar-official during the Southern Song. He had difficulty climbing the ranks of officialdom and when the Mongol Yuan took over China in 1276 he effectively gave up on the idea. Although in 1286 his friend Zhao Mengfu accepted a position and so for a time it seemed he could as well, but he refused on patriotic grounds. Although to avoid difficulties he cited old age.
His life after 1276 was devoted to painting and he became noted as a "fur and feathers" painter. He is also known for landscapes displaying that hinted at a longing for a return of native Chinese rule, like in the work ''Home Again.'' He mixed Song realism with an archaic Tang style.

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References

References

★ ''Masterpieces of Chinese Art'' (page 87), by Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper, Todtri Productions, 1997. ISBN 1-57717-060-1

★ Artfact on him

★ Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with three of his paintings