Late Ming landscape painting tradition

Timeline

1. 1600–1630Songjiang · JiangnanDong Qichang championed the Southern School literati painting orthodoxy, emphasizing brush-and-ink interest and scholarly air; the Huating and Yunjian school took the Four Masters of the Yuan as models, establishing the theoretical framework and critical standards for late Ming landscape painting.
2. 1631–1640Suzhou · JiangnanIn the 1630s, Jiangnan's commercial prosperity intertwined with factional strife and border threats; landscape painters such as Dong Qichang's disciples and Wu school successors explored between archaism and innovation, while colophons, album leaves, and elegant gatherings formed a literati social network.
3. 1640–1644Jiangnan · JiangnanAs the late Ming social crisis deepened, landscape styles tended toward desolate austerity, spareness, or eccentricity; orthodox archaism coexisted with individual expression, providing artistic resources for the divergent paths of loyalist painters and the early Qing orthodox school at the Ming-Qing transition.