White Clouds on the Xiao-Xiang River, after Zhao Mengfu

The river and mountains depicted here are located in southern Hunan Province, a favorite region of poets and painters because of it many literary and historical associations. At center, high atop a bluff overlooking the cloud-covered river, stands a simple, empty pavillion, a poignant reminder of the Chinese scholar-artist's constant yearning for a secure retreat from the world.

Born to a prominent family, the artist Wang Jian inherited a large collections of old paintings that allowed him to study and copy many important works by past masters. Along with his friend Wang Shimin, three of whose works are exhibited at right, Wang Jian sought to establish a new orthodoxy in Chinese painting through the rigorous emulation of masters from the Song and Yuan dynasties (tenth to fourteenth centuries). He was a leader of the group later known as the Six Orthodox Masters of the Early Qing.

Wang Jian was particulary drawn to the landscape style of two tenth-century artists, Dong Yuan and Juran, and their later followers. In his inscription, Wang explains that his immediate inspiration for this painting was a work by Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), a highly influential artist of the Yuan dynasty who he notes was thoroughly steeped in the style of Dong Yuan. In this painting, the influence of Dong Yuan's style is most clearly evident in the modeling of the sloped and rocks and the archaic stylization of the swirling clouds.