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Find the scholar kneeling at his qin in the open cottage, with a book before him and young servants nearby, then climb the twisting trees to the crowded peaks.
Wang Meng, the last of the Four Great Masters of the Yuan dynasty, dated this scroll 1361, in the troubled final years of Mongol rule. He had served the Mongol government as a legal scribe before retiring to a mountain hermitage, and the Art Institute suggests the painting may be a metaphorical self-portrait. Dry strokes and clusters of dots give the rocks a rough, fibrous texture. The large characters above the painting were added in 1938 by Wu Hufan.
Hanging scroll; ink and light colors on paper · 177.8 × 64.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Chinese painting: Liao and Yuan
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Quiet Life in a Wooded Glen 林麓幽居圖
- Artist
- Wang Meng 王蒙 (Chinese, c. 1308-1385)
- Date
- Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), dated 1361
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and light colors on paper
- Dimensions
- 177.8 × 64.2 cm (70 × 25 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.