1530
ink
paper
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Autumn Mountains 秋山圖 is a 1530 ink by Wen Zhengming, a Ming Painting work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a long paper scroll of misty blue mountains, gold flecks in the ink catching the light. A tiny traveler climbs a steep path, alone except for a few bare trees and empty huts. Wen Zhengming painted this in the 1500s, when scholars used brushstrokes like calligraphy—each line deliberate, quiet. The mountains look solid, but the ink is thin, almost see-through in places, so the gold shimmers through like sunlight. To see how ink can feel both heavy and light, look up cross-hatching.
The eminent scholar-painter Wen Zhengming mastered disciplined but unassertive brushwork to create subtly powerful and often poignant compositions. Ascending a steep mountain path, a man with a walking staff is the solitary inhabitant of this landscape; desolate huts and clustered groves of thin trees are his only neighbors. Horizontal strokes accent the densely layered and partially shadowed mountain contours – an intriguing blend or representational form and surface texture. A poetic colophon by Shao Bao (1460-1527) is inscribed after the painting: In the Dao of painting, spring mountains…
Liu Shu 劉恕 (1759–1816). Wang Zuxi 王祖錫 (1858–1908). Luo Zhenyu (1866–1940).Ching Tsai Loo (C.T. Loo, 1880‒1957), Paris and New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Jul. 8, 1948.
Kuo, Jason C.. Word as Image: The Art of Chinese Engraving. Exh. Cat. : China House Gallery Chica Institute in America. New York City, 1992, Pl. 5 (No. 54). Edwards. Richard. The Art of Wen Cheng-ming(1470-1559). Exh. Cat.:The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 1976), cat.XIV. Ming-Ch’ing Dynasties A.D. 1368-1644, 1644-1912. Exh. Cat. : The Art Institute of Chicago, no pagination. Dubosc, Jean-Pierre. Mostra d’arte cinese: Sttimo centenario d Marco Polo [Exhibition of Chinese art: 700 anniverary of Mardo Polo]. Exh. Cat.: Palazzo Ducale. Venice, 1954, cat, no. 808. The Art…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Wen Zhengming spent most of his life in Suzhou, a city of canals and scholars where art and poetry were daily habits, not hobbies.
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