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Landscape

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Landscape

1629

Shen Shichong

Chinese, active ca., 1605 - 1640

A leading master in Songjiang (now Shanghai) in the early 17th century, Shen Shichong crafted this monumental landscape with mistily soft treatment of forms and smooth flowing spaces, interjected with surprisingly naturalistic and dynamic elements, as seen in the pine trees. These features, while consistent with what we know about Shen's style, do not undermine the artist's unusual yet playful composition, which introduces cut-off segments of scenery into the corners of his pictures. In the lower left-hand corner, for instance, rather than depicting rocks or defining a ground plane in the foreground, Shen paints the upper branches of a tree. It suggests an unusual angle of view from a high, removed vantage point, further isolating the scholar and his modest hut from the troubled regions beyond.
Ink on paper
Overall: 100 x 29 in. (254.1 x 73.6cm)
Image: 45 1/2 x 20 1/4 in. (124.1 cm (h) x 55.8 cm (w))
Gift of Katy Talati and the General Acquisition Fund
2008.30
Provenance: Katy Talati, Oxford, England
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective, Dec. 22, 2007 - July 26, 2009.

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