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The entwined ideas of artist, image, and audience are effectively embodied by an 1887 portrait by Ren Bonian of Jin Erzhen (1840–1917), also known as Jin Jishi (Figure e.1). A prominent calligrapher in this period, Jin Erzhen regularly appeared on the lists of Shanghai’s famous artists.1Close Provocatively titled Picture of Mr. Jishi Admiring and Regarding Himself with Affection, the portrait shows Jin as portly and prosperous in appearance, standing alertly next to a large garden rock. Initial inspection would suggest that the terms of the picture are the usual ones of the scholar’s portrait: the sitter cuts a gentlemanly figure and his place in the larger social order is reinforced by the rock as an abbreviated representation of the scholar’s garden. Clearly taking a cue from Ren Bonian’s 1868 portrait of Sha Fu of almost twenty years earlier, where the subject is similarly paired with a garden rock, Jin’s portrait appears at first to repeat the conceit of the literatus at home in his world; however, on second glance, it would seem that this later portrait is less accommodating toward its subject and audience. Standing stiffly with his arms behind his back, Jin makes no acknowledgment of the viewer or, for that matter, his rock companion, looking only straight ahead. The bonhomie of the earlier portrait has somehow dissipated, and the portrait is severely reduced to the two essential elements of figure and rock; painting and artist together circle this stark pairing—or opposition.
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