Wen Zhengming

Wen Zhengming was a Suzhou painter, calligrapher and poet who studied with Shen Zhou and, after repeatedly failing the civil service examinations and a short spell at court, led the Wu School for half a century. He painted refined landscapes, old trees and garden scenes, among them an album of the Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician, the Suzhou garden now called the Humble Administrator’s Garden. He is counted one of the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty. The British Museum holds paintings and calligraphy by him.