Overview

Li Shizhong, also known as Zhengfu, used the penname, Dieyuan. He was from Gaomi in the province of Shandong, China. He became a shinshi (Ch., jinshi), or "successful candidate in the highest imperial examination," in 1736 (Qianlong 1), and worked as an officer at the National Academy (Ch., Hanlin yushi). He was a landscape painter. He painted Gaoting muyexia shiyi tu (E., Poetry Painting with Pavilion under the Tree) and gave it to Gao Fenghan as a gift, who was from an area near his hometown. Zhu Wenzhen acknowledged him as one of ten finest literati painters of the time. Despite his reputation, however, there are very few works of his remaining. That painting, in which he followed the style of a famous painter in the past, and this work, which includes the scene of snow-covered mountains that he painted as a memento of the heavy snow in Taiyuan in the province of Shanxi at New Year's, 1753 (Qianlong 18), are considered his representative masterpieces.