Whispering Pines in Myriad Valleys
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Li Tang, Song dynasty
Whispering Pines in Myriad Valleys
Hanging scroll故畫000896
Exhibition Dates: 2025.11.11~2025.12.28
Li Tang’s (circa 1050-after 1130) “Whispering Pines in Myriad Valleys” ranks as another masterpiece of Northern Song landscape painting after Fan Kuan’s “Travelers Among Mountains and Streams” and Guo Xi’s “Early Spring.” Li Tang served in the Painting Academy during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and according to the inscription, this painting was done in the sixth year of his Xuanhe reign in the Northern Song period (1124). The painting features a central peak flanked by jagged peaks of varying heights piercing through the clouds. The rocky surfaces have a texture resembling that of wood chopped with an axe, known as “axe-cut” texture strokes. The composition is lofty, but the foreground trees are exaggerated in scale, thereby minimizing the main peak. Created during the late Northern Song under Emperor Huizong and passing into the imperial collection of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song, this painting marks a significant turning point in the development of landscape painting during the Northern and Southern Song transitional period.
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