Biography of Wang Mengbai

Wang Mengbai (1888–1934) was a modern Chinese painter. His given name was Yun; his courtesy name, Mengbai; his sobriquets, Master of the Broken Studio and the Third Way Man. His ancestral home was Fengcheng, Jiangxi, and he was born in Quzhou, Zhejiang (present-day Kecheng District). Because his residence bordered Three Streams, he called himself the Fisherman-Recluse of Three Streams, the source of the name Third Way Man. As a boy he apprenticed in a lantern shop and a money house, studying hard and painting diligently; he named his dwelling the Hall of Reflected Snow, also called the Three Qu Reading-and-Painting Pavilion. As a young man apprenticing in a Shanghai money house, he loved painting flowers and birds, studied Ren Yi, and received guidance from Wu Changshuo, improving quickly. In 1919 he went to Beijing as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice; from 1919 to 1924, on Chen Shizeng's recommendation, he served as director and professor of the Chinese painting department at the Beijing Specialized School of Fine Arts (Beiping Art School). His noted pupils were Wang Xuetao and Wang Yuyi. As a youth a money-house apprentice, he took up Ren Yi's flower-and-bird painting and was admired by Wu Changshuo. Later in Beijing, Chen Shizeng urged him to study Li and Hua Yan, and his art advanced greatly; Chen recommended him as a professor at the Beijing Art School. He excelled at flowers and feathered creatures, favored sketching from life, and was especially skilled at painting monkeys. In 1929 he went to Japan and held a solo exhibition. He later died in poverty in Tianjin.