山高水长 High Mountains and Long River

1899–1985

山高水长 High Mountains and Long River, 1979

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: paper; ink; color

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 68.3 x 136.5 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 26 7/8 x 53 3/4 in
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 75.9 x 146.2 cm
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 29 7/8 x 57 9/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 75 7/8 x 146 3/16 in
Weight (Weight): 29 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase: Gift of H. Tully and Ruth B. Moss by exchange

Accession number: 1984.0035

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Using the Past to Serve the Present in 20th Century Chinese Painting," Oct-2006, Ai-lian Liu, Asian Art Intern
Qian Songyan grew up in Jiangsu, a beautiful coastal province. He received a classical education in poetry, calligraphy and painting and, as a young man, focused intently on earlier styles. Although his ability to handle the brush was compromised when his hands were severely damaged from forced labor during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), he returned to landscape painting. After
Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, he was one of several artists commissioned to paint a series of huge landscapes in the leader’s mausoleum. One work from his series of large waterfall paintings was exhibited in a restaurant in the
Beijing Hotel from 1979 to 1982.

Qian felt no disjuncture between the realism favored by the government and his classical training. He once wrote: "The greatest painters of the past express a certain mood, a philosophical concept. Yet most classical Chinese landscapes are highly realistic in that they are a synthesis of nature and the artist’s feelings and ideas." Quoted from Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China

Archive Label 2003 (version 1):
Qian Songyan grew up in Yixing in Jiangsu Province, in a very beautiful part of China, where he received a classical education in poetry, calligraphy and painting. As a young man he focused intently on earlier styles and paintings although his own work was evolving in new directions. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) Qian’s hands were severely damaged, but he managed to survive as an artist by renouncing his past errors and declaring that henceforth he would serve the people and endeavor to develop a “proletarian world view.” Waterfall and Pines displays the artist’s return to individualized brushwork and pictorial values after the Cultural Revolution.

Archive Label 2003 (version 2):
From Jiaxing, Jiangsu, Qian Songyan first taught art in high school and later at the Jiangsu Painting Academy. Active in Nanjing, he was influenced by Fu Baoshi (1904-1965). Waterfall and Pines displays Qian's return to individualized brushwork and pictorial values after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). His depiction of an actual scene reflects the artist's familiarity with the landmarks of China.