明 戴進 雪歸圖 軸|Returning home through the snow

Dai Jin's hanging scroll Returning home through the snow (1455) is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work, executed in ink and color on silk, depicts a landscape featuring mountains, snow, and a solitary figure. While the artwork's creation is dated to 1455 and its origin is identified as China, the provided records do not list a specific accession or inventory number for the piece.

Furthermore, the available sources contain no information regarding the painting's exhibition history or past display locations beyond its current institutional holding at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Returning Home Through the Snow, executed in 1455 by Dai Jin, is a hanging scroll in ink and color on silk that exemplifies the Zhe school's revival of Southern Song academic traditions. The composition depicts a solitary traveler ascending a steep, snow-covered mountain path, his figure bent under a heavy straw raincoat. Dai Jin utilizes the white of the silk support to represent the snow, a technique known as 'leaving white,' while applying dense ink washes to the rocks and trees to create stark contrast and atmospheric depth.

The sky remains entirely empty, devoid of clouds or birds, which isolates the figure and emphasizes the silence and hardship of the winter journey. Painted late in the artist's career, this work demonstrates Dai Jin's mastery of dynamic brushwork and his ability to convey narrative tension within a landscape format. It stands as a significant example of Ming dynasty landscape painting, bridging the gap between the expressive freedom of the Southern Song masters and the more rigid academic styles that would follow.