Research On Hu Gongshou’s Painting Friendship

Hu Gongshou was active in the early Shanghai School painting circle from the 1840 s to the 1890 s.His paintings feature Chinese wet style of painting and epigraphy.This thesis mainly discusses Hu Gongshou’s friends making during his traveling within the country by looking into his social intercourse activities and his paintings.The approaches based on historical sociology,philology and image analysis are taken to present Hu’s life,painting development and artistic influence while giving insight into the living conditions of the Shanghai School painters and the painting market at the time.Based on the Exquisite Landscape in Wuxing,the thesis first summarizes Hu Gongshou’s experiences of traveling with celebrated individuals from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in his youth,and then explores his contacts with many other celebrities and epigraphists by examining documents such as Diary of Wang Tao.Secondly,through the study of historical documents,the letters exchanged between Hu Gongshou and Mao Shucheng and his existing paintings,the thesis reveals the deep friendship between Hu and Mao and expounds Hu’s unremitting effort to guide and support the younger generations of painters such as Ren Bonian,Wu Changshuo,Xu Gu and many of his other students and followers after he established his own painting school.The last part of the thesis analyzes the contacts between Hu Gongshou and Japanese painters and art dealers in his later years and pointed out his reputation in the Japanese literary circle,based on the existing materials about the Japanese painting circle and Shanghai school paintings.And Hu Gongshou’s influence and status in the Shanghai School painting are presented through the examination of Shen Daily and related periodicals issued during the period of the Republic of China.By mapping out the friends that Hu made during his travels,the thesis shows the vast number and variety of the friends he made.The picturesque mountains and lakes he sighted and celebrated individuals that he met had become sources of inspiration for his later works while at the same time his style was influencing other painters of the Shanghai School.Hu Gongshou was one of the most important painters in the Shanghai School painting and a leading figure in the history of the Shanghai School painting.