Album of the Feng River Landscape Scenes: Sheer Cliffs and Tumbling Waterfall

Maker(s)
Artist: Hongren (1610-1664)
Historical period(s)
Qing dynasty, 1660
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
H x W (image): 21.4 x 12.9 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/16 in)
Geography
China, Anhui province, Shexian
Credit Line
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Accession Number
S1987.211.2
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Album, Painting
Type

Album leaf

Keywords
China, landscape, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), river, waterfall
Provenance

To?
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983). [1]

To 1987
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987), New York. [2]

From 1987
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Arthur M. Sackler, New York. [3]

Notes:

[1] See object file.

[2] See note 1.

[3] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Zhang Daqian China, 1899-1983
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler 1913-1987

Label

Hongren is the Buddhist name taken by the painter Jiang Tao, who also used the name Jianjiang. Already in his own lifetime, he was acclaimed for his cool, spare vision of nature, which he translated into an individualistic style of austere monochrome landscapes. Trained in youth for the esteemed Confucian career of serving as a government official, Hongren passed the entrance-level exams for public service but then withdrew to care for his widowed mother and to study art and literature. When he was thirty-four, Manchu conquerors swept into China and overthrew the established imperial order, founding a new dynasty called the Qing (1644-1911). Hongren, who remained loyal to the previous rulers, fled the ensuing turmoil and became a Buddhist monk.

These paintings (S1987.211.1 through .6) belong to an album of ten scenes inspired by the painting styles of previous masters, as well as by Hongren's study of natural scenery (other leaves are on view: S1987.211.2 - 10). Old Trees by a Stream and Sheer Cliffs and Tumbling Waterfall demonstrate Hongren's virtuosity in both a wet- and dry-brush idiom, although he is better known for the latter.

Published References
  • Victoria Contag, C.C. Wang. Seals of Chinese Painters and Collectors of the Ming and Ch'ing Periods., rev. ed. with supplement. Hong Kong. p. 85.
  • Les Trois Reves du Mandarin. Exh. cat. Brussels. cat. 83a, pp. 104-5.
  • Marilyn Fu, Fu Shen. Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections in New York, Princeton, and Washington, D.C., 3rd ed. Princeton, 1973. pp. 140-151.
  • et al. Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: The Inaugural Gift. Washington, 1987. cat. 197, p. 296.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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