A lotus plant and flowers extend upward from an amorphous water course. The brush and ink work are both descriptive and expressive, with a range of ink values contributing pictorial interest. The calligraphic strokes of the blossoms and leaves suggest that the artist was more than competent at writing, a suggestion that is borne out by the short poem inscribed on the work. The subject here as well as style are reminiscent of Zhu Da (1626-1705), a foremost painter of the late Ming-early Qing era.
Chen Zhuan (1678-1758) was born in Hangzhou and maintained relations with that city throughout his life. His earliest teacher was the eminent scholar Mao Qiling (1623-1716) and among his friends were the artists and scholars Jin Nong (1687-1763) and Ding Jing (1695-1765). The last two and Chen were recommended for the prestigious special Boxue hongci examination of 1736 but he declined to participate. Friends of his who did participate include Li E and Hang Shijun, the last of whom left an account of Chen’s life.
By the 1720s Chen was active in the city of Yangzhou, famed at that time for its extremely wealthy salt-merchants–they contributed an incredible one-quarter of the total annual national tax revenues– who supported a range of cultural activities, including the artists who later became known as the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, a group in which Chen himself is sometimes placed. Among Chen’s painter friends were Jin Nong, Wang Shishen, Bian Shoumin, Li Shan, and Li Fangying, and Hua Yan. All of these were professional painters, and their output mirrors that fact, with many of their paintings dedicated to or mentioning the merchants who patronized them.
Chen Zhuan is in a different category. He can be shown to have lived for years in the households of such merchants as the Jiang, Zhao, and Ma families yet his output of paintings was relatively small, and very few mention any of the merchants. Obviously, in these transactions Chen was providing something less tangible, and equally obviously this was simply the social cache of having such an eminent person in permanent residence.
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