Chen Chun (1483-1544) was a native of Changzhou (modern Suzhou) in Jiangsu province. His style name was Daofu, which he used as his given name from around the age of 50. He also had another style name, Fufu, and the alternate sobriquet Baiyang shanren. Born in the Chenghua reign of Emperor Xianzong and passing away in the Jiajing reign of Emperor Shizong, he lived to the age of 62 by Chinese reckoning. Chen Chun was born into a literati family and delved into learning from childhood, becoming quite talented in studies of the Classics, ancient poetry and prose, and calligraphy. He once studied poetry and prose, calligraphy, and painting from the master Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), and Chen admired and emulated Shen Zhou (1427-1509) as well. Considered an artist in the Wu school of Chinese painting, Chen Chun ranks only after Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming in this school of literati art.

Chen Chun's achievements in painting were outstanding; he inaugurated innovations in the sketching-ideas style of bird-and-flower painting in the Ming dynasty. While Chen inherited a foundation of sketching-from-life techniques from Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, he also looked back to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) periods for inspiration from a wide range of masters. As a result, he combined their virtues to create his own unique style of free and natural brushwork in the sketching-ideas tradition that is both lofty and untrammeled. Equally renowned as his latter counterpart in this manner, Xu Wei (1521-1593), they became known together as "Qingteng and Baiyang." They were representatives of the sketching-ideas bird-and-flower school of literati painting in the Ming dynasty and also highly appreciated by scholars and gentry at the time. Chen Chun was likewise gifted at landscape painting with utmost lyricism. His early landscape style reflects the study of Wen Zhengming's manner as he traced back to Shen Zhou and then to the Four Yuan Masters. The style of his middle years reveals a combination of the manners of Mi Fu (1051-1108), Gao Kegong (1254-1322), and others, and he dealt mostly with subjects of Jiangnan (southern) scenery. In terms of technique, Chen adapted the watery ink style of flowers in the sketching-ideas manner for use in landscape painting. His brush method, though often unrestrained and direct, has much of the temperament exemplified in literati aesthetics. Furthermore, Chen Chun was a gifted calligrapher who excelled at running and cursive scripts. Along with the renowned Zhu Yunming (1460-1527), he belonged to the "novel and bold" school of Wumen (Suzhou) calligraphers. Leaning towards the expression of dissipated temperament among literati, Chen can be considered a pioneer in leading the late Ming romantic style of calligraphy. This gallery display of several masterpieces by Chen Chun from the National Palace Museum collection is being presented to demonstrate some of the stylistic features of Chen Chun's marvelous achievements in not only painting and calligraphy, but also poetry as well.