Emperor Kangxi’s casual writing scroll

[Axis of Emperor Kangxi’s casually dressed writing portrait]

Axis of Emperor Kangxi’s casually dressed writing portrait, painted by a court painter in the Qing Dynasty, silk, colored, 50.5 cm in length and 31.9 cm in width
In the imperial education of the Qing Dynasty, there were very detailed and strict requirements for the subjects that the prince studied, and the practice of Chinese calligraphy was one of the required courses. Due to many factors such as personal temperament, hobbies, etc., the style of the books of the princes is different, and each has its own merits
Emperor Kangxi loved calligraphy and calligraphy since he was young. He often observed ancient Chinese ink and exchanged calligraphic skills with literary officials who were good at calligraphy after retiring from the dynasty. He was not confined to one family when he was writing books, from Wang Xizhi to Yan Zhenqing, from Su Shi to Mi Fu, all over the world, thus forming a strong and vigorous style of writing. He is fond of Dong Qichang’s calligraphy and has repeatedly written it. Its handwriting is natural and beautiful, vigorous and frank, which is quite the essence of Dong Shu. Due to the promotion of Emperor Kangxi, Dong Shu, which was already in decline, has dominated the literary world of the Qing Dynasty for more than 100 years
In the picture, Emperor Kangxi was dressed in casual clothes. With his left hand, he gently pressed the rice paper on the square table, and his right hand was about to write. The ink dragon on the screen behind him implied the noble status of the king. The square table drawn with the traditional Chinese perspective technique and the screen seat drawn with the European focus perspective method form an irreconcilable contradiction in the picture. It can be inferred from this that this painting was painted in the early stage of the spread of the West to the East, and was created by a court painter who had studied western painting techniques, but did not fully understand its perspective principle. Although this painting is uncoordinated, it is still an interesting work under the exchange and collision of Chinese and Western paintings, which is worthy of further study and discussion.