Life

Qian Weicheng (style name Zongpan, sobriquet You』an), a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu, came in first place in the civil service exams of 1745. In painting, he looked back to the Four Yuan Masters and more recently in his day to the Four Wangs of the Qing. Receiving instruction from Dong Bangda, he also entered the Southern Studio at court.

Works

This album originally formed part of a four-volume set depicting scenery and flowers of the four seasons. Representing the varied faces of winter, the twelve paintings in the album alternate between the soft grays and muted colors of wintry landscapes and the intense colors of seasonal flowers.

This work illustrates a poem by the Qianlong Emperor. With meticulous brushwork, it depicts the imperial bodyguard pushing and pulling a yellow ice-sled tent on which Qianlong rides, slowly making their way across the Taiye Lake of the Western Gardens. In the white lyricism of this ice-bound land and light flying snow, figures dot the landscape set off against the wide frozen lake and imperial buildings on the banks.

家庭及關聯

• 正室：金氏（1720－1782）。官至貴州按察使吳縣金祖靜之女。

有子女三人。

• 女：錢孟鈿（1739－1806），女詩人。適乾隆二十六年進士官湖北荊宜施道崔龍見，康熙五十七年進士官至湖北巡撫崔紀之子。

• 長子：錢中銑（1744－1779），乾隆三十九年欽賜舉人，官內閣中書。娶莊氏莊環玦（1743－1785），雍正五年進士官浙江海防道莊柱孫女、乾隆十九年狀元官翰林院侍講學士莊培因之女。

• 次子：錢中鈺（1749－1779），監生，官中書科中書。娶劉氏（1751－1806），康熙五十一年進士官太子少保協辦大學士劉於義孫女、四川布政使劉益之女。

注釋