Mountains and Waterfall, Chen Yuanyun

Archive Label 2003:
As a youth in China, Chen Yuanyun studied poetry and calligraphy, the proper background for wenren (scholar-amateur) painting in the long-established and highly-respected Chinese tradition. At the age of 51, he came to Japan where he stayed until his death thirty-three years later, making him the first Chinese wenren style artist to work in Japan. Despite his skill as a painter however, he had much more success in his adopted homeland as a scholar, potter, and teacher of gongfu.
Mountains and Waterfall, one of only two known paintings done by Chen Yuanyun, was once owned by the painter Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924), indicating that the works of conservative Chinese artists were more appreciated by later Japanese artists than those of his own lifetime. The unusual mounting reproduces many types of Chinese seals.

Archive Label date unknown: Ch'en Yuan-yun is important as the first known Chinese literati artist to arrive in Japan during the Edo period. As a youth he studied poetry and calligraphy, and at the age of 35 Ch'en became translator for the Chinese ambassador to Japan; it was probably this connection that brought him to Nagasaki in 1638. He entered the service of Tokugawa Yoshinau in Nagoya and remained there until his death. This is one of only two known paintings by Ch'en Yuan-yun, and represents the quiet, conservative nature of the orthodox literati painting tradition. The unusual mounting reproduces many types of Chinese seals.