溪山無盡之三 Mountain-River No. 3

Who is Mr. Gung after all?

梅墨生, editor of 山水畫述要 (A Concise Book on Chinese Landscape Painting) introduces him as an artist of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). But not quite so if you look at his dates (1599?-1689?). The two question marks signify that people are not so sure about his exact dates of birth and death. Anyway he thought himself a citizen loyal to Ming Dynasty. When Ming dynasty was overthrown, Mr. Gung, who then was 45 years old and lived in Nanjing, was very upset. He tried to turn back the historical tide with no avail. Later he remained in Nanjing as a recluse, doing nothing but painting. He was highly regarded as the leader of a group called "Nanjing Eight Painters".