Artwork
南宋 馬遠 月下賞梅圖 團扇|Viewing plum blossoms by moonlight

南宋 馬遠 月下賞梅圖 團扇|Viewing plum blossoms by moonlight is an ink painting by the Song dynasty landscape artist Ma Yuan. It dates from 1216 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
A lone scholar leans on a rock, gazing at a branch of plum blossoms under a thin crescent moon, the rest of the silk left empty. Ma Yuan painted it in 1216 on a round fan, the sliver of moon letting ink washes suggest light rather than show it.
Subject & Meaning
” The composition includes a man, a tree and the Moon, elements that align with the work’s classification as a Southern Song landscape genre piece.
The painting shows a solitary figure standing beneath a moonlit tree while admiring plum blossoms, a scene identified by its title “Viewing plum blossoms by moonlight.” The composition includes a man, a tree and the Moon, elements that align with the work’s classification as a Southern Song landscape genre piece. Executed in ink and color on silk and mounted as a fan‑leaf album leaf in 1216 in China, the piece was created by Ma Yuan and later entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its subject therefore embodies a quiet, contemplative engagement with nature characteristic of literati painting of the period.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in ink and polychrome on silk, with the painted surface mounted as an album leaf, a format that treats the fan as a portable support. Its subject belongs to the landscape genre and depicts a moon, a man, and a tree, as recorded in the catalog. The work is classified as a painting within Southern Song court output, emphasizing a restrained handling of brush and color on the silk support.
History & Provenance
The painting is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its presence in the museum's holdings is documented in the Wikidata entry for the work, which lists the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the current collection location. No specific accession or inventory number is provided in the available sources, and there is no record of exhibition history for this piece in the cited references.
Context
The painting attributed to Ma Yuan was created in China in 1216 as a fan-mounted album leaf in ink and color on silk, classified as a Southern Song landscape work that depicts a man beneath a moonlit tree. Its composition and subject reflect the lyrical sensibility of the period and have been recognized in scholarly discussions of Ma Yuan’s role in the Southern Song painting tradition. The work is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, underscoring its accepted significance within the canon of Chinese art history.
Overview
Ma Yuan, a prominent painter of the Southern Song dynasty, created Viewing Plum Blossoms by Moonlight in 1216. This work, rendered in ink and color on silk, was originally a round fan before being mounted as an album leaf. It depicts a solitary figure observing plum blossoms under a subtle moon, embodying the contemplative spirit often found in Song-era landscapes.
The composition is a representative example of the distinctive style developed by the Ma-Xia school, which Ma Yuan helped establish.
Artist & collection
Artist
Ma Yuan (Chinese: 馬遠; pinyin: Mǎ Yuǎn; Wade–Giles: Ma Yüan; c. 1160–65 – 1225) was a Chinese painter of the Song dynasty. His works, together with that of Xia Gui, formed the basis of the so-called Ma-Xia (馬夏) school of…















