About this artwork
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 are admired,
But one can sympathize even more with autumn mountains.
High winds overwhelm strong trees,
Heavy rains - one can really see the springs.
Tallow and plum trees are thin,
Maple groves and apricot [trees] fade and groan.
Yet when winter follows this,
The pine and cypress are just as before.”
(translation by Stephen Little)
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Arts of Asia
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Artist
- Wen Zhengming
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Title
- Autumn Mountains 秋山圖
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Place
- China (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1510–1550
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Medium
- Handscroll; ink on gold-flecked paper
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Inscriptions
- Exterior Label (玉池) by Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉. Frontispiece (引首) by Xu Lin 徐霖 :Autumn Mountains (秋山), Signature:䫇仙. Seals: 徐氏子仁,麓雲樓書畫記,蓉峰之印,劉氏寒碧莊印. Inscription on Painting: 秋山圖為子仰作, 徵明. Seals:文徵明印,停雲生. Collectors' Seals: 蓉峰鑑賞, □□鑑定, 吴邑刘恕审定, □□□□, 劉氏寒碧莊印,惕庵所得名蹟,蓉峰審定,廷俞珍藏,王遂菴曾觀, 向叔平生長物,何長庚鑑賞書畫之章
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Dimensions
- 32 × 489 cm (12 9/16 × 192 1/2 in.)
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Credit Line
- Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund
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Reference Number
- 1948.103
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/62536/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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