Artwork
明/清 佚名 李遠(僞款) 仿夏珪江山清遠圖 卷|Landscape
- Accession no.
- 47.18.89
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The handscroll, dated 1777 and executed in ink on silk, presents a traditional Chinese landscape that centers on a prominent mountain and an accompanying tree.
The handscroll, dated 1777 and executed in ink on silk, presents a traditional Chinese landscape that centers on a prominent mountain and an accompanying tree. These elements constitute the primary visual subject, situating the work within the genre of Chinese landscape painting and echoing the compositional strategies of the Southern Song master Xia Gui, albeit through an anonymous hand. The mountain and tree serve as the principal iconographic motifs, embodying the aesthetic concerns of the period rather than explicit symbolic attributes.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1777, this Chinese landscape is realized as a handscroll using ink applied on a silk support. The work measures approximately 36.5 centimeters in height and 177.2 centimeters in width. Stylistically, the piece is attributed to an anonymous artist operating under the spurious signature of Li Yuan, who intended to emulate the manner of the Southern Song master Xia Gui.
The composition focuses on naturalistic elements, specifically depicting mountains and trees within a broader scenic context. As a painting classified within the landscape genre, the medium and format align with traditional East Asian scroll painting practices, though specific details regarding the current physical condition or unique handling characteristics are not explicitly detailed in the available records beyond its structural identity as a silk handscroll.
History & Provenance
The handscroll ink on silk titled 明/清 佚名 李遠(僞款) 仿夏珪江山清遠圖 is dated to 1777 and was produced in China by an anonymous painter who modeled his style on Xia Gui. No documentation indicates a specific commission; the work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains today. Its provenance is therefore limited to its creation in the late eighteenth‑century Chinese artistic milieu and subsequent acquisition by the museum, as recorded in the museum’s catalog and the Wikidata entry for the piece.
The handscroll Landscape after Xia Gui (attributed to an anonymous Ming/Qing painter with a false Li Yuan signature) is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its accession number is 47.18.89. The work, dated to 1777, is classified within the museum's Department of Asian Art under the category of paintings.
While the sources confirm its current location and inventory designation, they do not provide a detailed record of specific past exhibitions or a comprehensive provenance chain beyond its accession into the Met's holdings.
Context
The handscroll, dated 1777 and executed in ink on silk, is recorded as an anonymous Qing‑period imitation of the Southern Song master Xia Gui. Its composition of towering mountains and solitary trees exemplifies the landscape genre. The work is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 47.18.89) and is studied as a representative example of 18th‑century Chinese painters’ engagement with earlier Song models.
Scholars consider it part of the broader tradition of copying and reinterpreting Xia Gui’s spatial techniques, underscoring its role in the transmission of landscape aesthetics through the Qing elite market.
Overview
This handscroll, titled Landscape, is rendered in ink on silk. It presents a panoramic view of a natural environment, featuring misty mountains, gnarled pine trees, and a river that recedes into the distance. This work is not an original composition but rather an imitation of a landscape painting by the 13th-century master Xia Gui, created several centuries later during the Ming or Qing dynasty.
Artist & collection
