Landscape paintings of the Loudong School are on show in an exhibition at Taicang Museum in Taicang, East China's Jiangsu province lasting from Oct 2 to Dec 4.

The Loudong School of painting gets its name from the former name for Taicang, an ancient city with profound history and culture. This exhibition brings a collection of Loudong masterpieces home to Taicang for two months, after which they will return to their permanent home in Nanjing Museum, with the aim of boosting Taicang's cultural development and popularity as a tourist destination.

A painting by Wang Shimin depicting flowing waterfalls during the summer time [Photo/Taicang Daily]

The Loudong School is also known as the School of Four Wangs, named after its founders and major contributors: Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi. Three of the four, Wang Shimin, Wang Yuanqi and Wang Jian, were Taicang natives, while Wang Hui came from the nearby city of Changshu.

The exhibition contains masterpieces from 11 artists, including the works of the Four Wangs and their students.

The Loudong School originated in Taicang more than 300 years ago and thrived throughout the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644-1911). It succeeded the style of Dong Qichang, a prominent calligrapher and painter in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644), which was dominated by the aesthetics of the literati painters.

A work by Wang Hui showing summer vacationers in the mountains [Photo/Taicang Daily]

The Four Wangs paid little attention to the content of their paintings, but attached great importance to learning from and imitating traditional Chinese painting skills. Though they were skillful in brushstroke techniques and accomplished much artistically, their art works were quite detached from life.

A landscape painting of a mountain scene by Wang Jian [Photo/Taicang Daily]

The four Wangs were teachers and students; Wang Shimin is widely considered the founder of the school, while Wang Yuanqi, the youngest, is recognized as the one who made this school appreciated by the emperor.

Their work influenced many painters during the Qing Dynasty. Besides that, they also inspired the new Loudong School, a group of painters from Taicang born in modern and contemporary times, who also focus on traditional Chinese paintings.