During the transition from the late Ming (1368-1644) to early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, four artists surnamed Wang, known collectively as "Four Wangs", rose to carry on the ink painting tradition, notably the mountain and water genre, amid social instability.
Their landscape paintings inherited the orthodox principles and the literati painting style, or wenrenhua, established by artist and theoretician Dong Qichang (1555-1636).