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Ten Views from a Thatched Hut (new window)

Ten Views from a Thatched Hut

Lu Hong (fl. ca. 7th-8th c.), Tang dynasty
Handscroll, ink on paper, 29.4 x 600 cm

Lu Hong (style name Haoran), a native of Fanyang in Youzhou (modern Daxing, Hebei), was a recluse in the mountains. Learned and excelling at calligraphy, he was good at painting. During Emperor Xuanzong's reign, he repeatedly declined offers to become an official, being awarded the robes of a recluse and a thatched hut instead.

This handscroll features ten views, before which are ten aspirational verses written in the styles of Chu Suiliang, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu Gongquan. Text and images make a delightful arrangement. The archaic mountains and trees feature angular strokes, the ink washes very skillful. The date of production, however, is open to debate. This scroll circulated in Jiangnan in the early 16th century, the composition an influential paradigm for reclusion in later days.

Homecoming Ode (new window)

Homecoming Ode

Lu Tanwei (fl. ca. mid-5th c.), Six Dynasties Period (Song)
Handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 43 x 142 cm

This work shows Tao Yuanming, the famous author of "Homecoming Ode," in a boat returning with chrysanthemums. He appears with books and painting as well as antiquities. Other surviving illustrations of the ode show Tao standing in the boat, but here he is seated in a scene for "The boat rocks in the light breeze" as people come out of the building, representing "attendants greeting." His wife is also not properly dressed as she hurries down the steps, suggesting her ardent longing.

This work was formerly attributed to Lu Tanwei, a famous figure and narrative painter of the Six Dynasties period. The style here, however, definitely does not reflect that of the fifth century but instead perhaps is from the 13th century or later.

Copy After Wang Wei's ＂Wangchuan Villa＂ (new window)

Copy After Wang Wei's "Wangchuan Villa"

Guo Zhongshu (d. 977), Song dynasty
Handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 29 x 490.4 cm

Records indicate that Wang Wei had his Wangchuan Villa built at Lantian and did twenty poems in "Anthology of Wangchuan," also illustrating Wangchuan on the walls of the Qingyuan Temple. The original has long been lost, but its imagery inspired later generations. Of the numerous later versions, many are reportedly by the ruled-line artist Guo Zhongshu after Wang Wei's version, this work being one of them.

This handscroll illustrates the scenes mentioned in "Anthology of Wangchuan" and includes "Wangkou Villa," making for 21 all together. Many scenes are spatial cell arrangements, giving the work and the figures an archaic feeling. Judging from the brushwork, however, this appears to have been done by an artist of the Ming or Qing dynasty.

Waiting for the Ferry Among Wintry Trees (new window)

Waiting for the Ferry Among Wintry Trees

Anonymous, Song dynasty (960-1279)
Hanging scroll, ink and light colors on silk, 136.8 x 99.7 cm

Wintry trees appeared in landscape paintings of China's north in the Five Dynasties and early Song. Its representative painter was Li Cheng (919-967), his works described as, "In an atmosphere desolate and expansive, misty trees are pure and spacious. The brush tip is exposed and the ink superb." Most surviving "wintry tree" works attributed to Li portray close-up pines and withered trees.

This one has distant, expansive scenery with frost and snow over the land. In front are ancient pines and leafless trees; two travelers and donkeys go to the ferry. Many wet washes convey the cold of a winter day. The textures and washes of the slopes and withered "crab-claw" branches suggest a scroll by a Southern Song or later painter in the school of Guo Xi.

Sketches from Life (new window)

Sketches from Life

Xiang Shengmo (1597-1658), Ming dynasty
Album leaf, ink (and colors) on paper, 23.5 x 16.5 cm

Xiang Shengmo (style name Kongzhang, sobriquet Yi’an), grandson of the mid-Ming collector Xiang Yuanbian, did marvelous flower and landscape paintings in a style of his own. After the Ming fall (1644), he lived in reclusion as a "remnant subject," many of his works reflecting the former dynasty.

This album is from the "yiyou" and "bingxu" years (1645-1646) while Shengmo was in Tongjiang to avoid the chaos. The style is pure and untrammeled with great beauty, the subjects dealing with things he saw at the time. The motifs, inscriptions, and seals express his sentiments after the Ming fall. On display here are such works as "Bamboo and Rocks," "Verdant Paulownia," "Ancient Pine," "Orchid," "Pavilion and Tree in Autumn," and "Begonia."

Lotuses and Willows Among Mountain Fields (new window)

Lotuses and Willows Among Mountain Fields

Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715), Qing dynasty
Album leaf, ink and colors on paper, 43.5 x 35.6 cm

Wang Yuanqi (style name Maojing, sobriquet Lu-tai), a native of Taicang in Jiangsu, was the grandson of Wang Shimin. Wang Yuanqi learned painting from his grandfather and was one of the Four Wangs of the Early Qing.

The paper in this album of seventeen leaves ("Landscapes in Imitation of Song and Yuan Artists") originally was given by Wang Shimin. Done during mourning by Wang Yuanqi for his father (1697-1699), the album is not only meticulous but also has personal significance. At first in ink only, after mourning, color was added. The leaf here uses the blue-and-green style of the Song artist Zhao Danian for conveying the poetic idea of Wang Wei. Verdant waves, white egrets, pink lotuses, and yellow orioles make for a small but unusually beautiful work.