About this artwork
This modest cottage nestled at the foot of towering mountains presents a quintessential image of academic retreat from the “dusty” world of material concerns and political instabilities. Its cultured occupant kneels on a platform and plays the zither (qin); a book lies open before him and young servants wait attentively nearby. The luxuriant setting of layered peaks and intertwined trees, as well as the dry, charcoal- like treatment of fibrous and dotted boulders, is imbued with a textural richness. This style is closely associated with Wang Meng, the last of the “Four Great Masters” of the Yuan dynasty.
Such a complex, kinetic composition reflects this artist’s distinctive contribution to the literati’s new use of painting as a vehicle for intellectual and emotional self-expression. This concept was largely kindled by social and political upheavals that accompanied the 14th-century Mongol conquest of China and the establishment of the Yuan dynasty. Wang Meng, who had served the Mongol government as a legal scribe, retired to a mountain hermitage in the turbulent final decades of Yuan rule. He may have executed this painting as a metaphorical self-portrait.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Arts of Asia
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Artist
- Wang Meng
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Title
- Quiet Life in a Wooded Glen 林麓幽居圖
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Place
- China (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1361
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Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and light colors on paper
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Inscriptions
- Inscriptions: 1. in upper right-hand corner of painting: title in seal characters, followed by dated signature of artist in regular script: 林麓幽居, 至正辛丑三月小日王蒙畫 [Quiet Life in a Wooded Glen','Tenth day of the third month ofthe xinchou year of the Zhizheng era (1361), painted by Wang Meng]. Artist's seal: Two red seals following the artist's inscription in the upper-right corner of the painting. Upper seal: 王蒙 "Wang Meng"; lower seal: 叔明 "Shuming" (style-name of Wang Meng). Collector's seals: in the lower right corner of the painting, C.C. Wang 王氏季遷珍藏之印 and Li Kefan 椒堂李可蕃鑑藏, bottom left, unidentified Colophons: 1. on the mounting above the painting: by Wu Hufan (1894-1968), dated 1938: 元王叔明林麓幽居圖 勁健暢發在丹青，春曉林泉清集之右, 戊寅吳湖帆題 Followed by studio seal of Wu Hufan: 某景書屋.
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Dimensions
- 177.8 × 64.2 cm (70 × 25 1/4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund
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Reference Number
- 1947.728
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/61483/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
