Landscape after Ni Zan and calligraphy in standard script

The stark ink-landscapes of the Yuan-dynasty painter Ni Zan (1306-1374) held a strong appeal for many seventeenth-century artists of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, especially followers of the influential painter and theorist Dong Qichang (1555-1636), such as Bada Shanren. Ni's spare compositions and spartan brushwork, together with the pervasive sense of loneliness and seclusion in his paintings, served as important models for Bada, who formally recognized the specific source of his inspiration in his unsigned inscription, which reads in part: "Ni Yu [Ni Zan] painted like a celestial steed bounding the void or white clouds emerging from a ridge, showing not a speck of mundane vulgarity."

In this undated album leaf, while both the dry, crumbly ink and small, open pavilion at lower left are strongly reminiscent of Ni Zan, the composition as a whole clearly illustrates the loose structural relationships and unconventional use of space that typify landscapes from Bada's late period.