Autumn Colors at Mount Yu

Description

Wang Hui
China, 1632–1717

Autumn Colors at Mount Yu
Qing dynasty (1644–1912)
ca. 1700
Handscroll, ink and color on silk
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret
Watson Parker Art Collection Fund, 1966/2.3
Wang Hui was born into a family of
artists in Changshu, about ninety-three
miles northwest of present-day Shanghai.
He studied under Wang Jian (whose
paintings are also on view in this gallery),
and later Wang Shiming, and became
known as one of the “Four Wangs.” His
style drew heavily from the painters of
the Tang (618–907), Song (960–1279),
and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties and
followed the orthodox Southern School
of painting developed by the art theorist
and painter Dong Qichang (1555–1636).
Wang Hui was one of the preeminent
early eighteenth-century painters of
the lower Yangzi River region. In this
handscroll, Mount Yu towers above
his hometown. The sheer vertical cliffs
above the ascending path is a site
known as “Sword Gate,” still visible in
Changshu. Wang was so enchanted by
this place that he adopted the nickname
“Woodcutter at the Sword Gate.”