Chen Hongshou ( 1599-1652), was a native of Zhuji in Zhejiang. After the fall of the Ming, he took the sobriquets Huichi .

       Chen Hongshou excelled in painting and calligraphy. He became a Buddhist monk in 1646 but was torn between the conflicting ideals of Confucian government service and Buddhist retirement. His paintings suggest something of those tensions in dealing with ancient subjects and figure styles; indeed, Chen gave a brief but vigorous new life and dignity to the art of figure painting that had been in limbo since the Song dynasty . Chen Hongshou specialized in figures, but he was also gifted at other subjects, including birds-and-flowers, grasses-and-insects, and landscapes. In figure painting, he sought the quality of his figure subjects rather than their absolute likeness. He also did illustrations for woodblock printing, making a major contribution to the art of woodblock illustration in the late Ming.