Landscape in the Style of Fan Kuan

Landscape in the Style of Fan Kuan

Unidentified Artist 

Period:

Song dynasty (960–1279)

Date:

early 12th century

Culture:

China

Medium:

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:

Image: 65 3/8 x 41 1/8 in. (166.1 x 104.5 cm) Overall with mounting: 116 1/2 x 49 3/4 in. (295.9 x 126.4 cm) Overall with knobs: 116 1/2 x 53 3/4 in. (295.9 x 136.5 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Gift of Irene and Earl Morse, 1956

Accession Number:

56.151

Once considered a work of the Ming period (1368–1644), this monumental landscape in the style of Fan Kuan can be dated stylistically to the twelfth century. A mountainscape built up in three stages, the painting shows a boat landing at the foot of a tree-covered bluff in the foreground; travelers heading toward a temple retreat in the middle ground; and mountain peaks rising in the background. The composition, showing mountain masses floating amid and unified by mist, compares closely to works firmly dated to the twelfth century. For example, the depiction of rocks and trees partially obliterated by mist and the blurring and fusing of texture strokes of different ink values reveal the artist’s familiarity with the paintings of Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090). The angular rock faces with “raindrop” texture dots and the scrubby foliage on the peaks are characteristic of paintings in the style of Fan Kuan.