Qian Du

1763-1844

Qian Du (c. 1763–1844), also known by his courtesy name Shumei and sobriquets Songhu, Songhu Xiaoyin, and Hegong, was a landscape painter active during the Qing dynasty. Born in Zhejiang province, he developed a style rooted in the tradition of the Yuan-dynasty master Wang Meng, favoring dense, layered compositions of mountains, rivers, and trees rendered with fine, textured brushwork. Beyond landscape, he also painted figures and flowers, though it is his mountain scenes that remain best known. His works are now held in major museum collections around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Palace Museum — a spread that reflects the enduring international interest in his brushwork long after his death in the mid-nineteenth century.