Album of Seasonal Landscapes, Leaf G (previous leaf 7)
1668
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1668
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Album of Seasonal Landscapes, Leaf G (previous leaf 7) is a 1668 unspecified by Xiao Yuncong, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a quiet river winding through misty hills, dotted with tiny boats and a few thatched huts. Xiao Yuncong painted this scene from life, not memory. He walked the same paths, noticing how light changes with the seasons. The soft greens and blues feel fresh, almost like watercolor, even though we don’t know what he used. To see how later artists borrowed his light touch, look up the subject: china, qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Throughout his lifetime, Xiao Yuncong visited Nanjing and Yangzhou, cities embedded in the fertile and water-rich Jiangnan region, as reflected in his paintings. Xiao painted from nature, and his landscapes are informed by the seasons and his travels, as well as by his experience as a print designer. Xiao’s fresh, light colors continue to appear in later Shanghai school paintings. This album was formerly in the collection of Li Yufen in Yangzhou and then owned by Wu Hufan in Shanghai. While the artist impressed his seal consistently below his poetic inscriptions in the upper parts of the…
The season depicted in this leaf is ambiguous, but the presence of bamboo and pine (two of the "three friends" 歲寒三友) points to winter.
Read the full account in the museum source.
