Handscroll, ink and color on paper, 28.4 x 93.2 cm
Zhao Mengfu (style name Zi'ang) excelled at painting and calligraphy. An advocate of revivalism, he came to have a great influence on literati painting and calligraphy. Zhao did this painting of his travels through the area of Shandong in 1295 for Zhou Mi (1232-1298) as a way to assuage Zhou's longing for and thoughts of his ancestral homeland there. The handscroll is partitioned into three sections; the first on the right depicts Hua(buzhu) Mountain and Qiao Mountain is at the left. Both peaks are shown in the background divided in the middle by a foreground expanse of marshy land and water. The three parts form a continuous level-distance view, the scenery dotted with thatched cottages and fishermen to enliven the plain and tranquil atmosphere. Simple and introverted strokes done with a centered brush appear throughout the handscroll to portray the trees, slopes, mountains, and figures in archaic forms, representing Zhao's study of Dong Yuan's (ca. 10th c.) style. Returning to the past but adorning it with something new at the same time, the painting represents Zhao's artistic notion of borrowing from the past to create the present.