雲壑松泉 yunhe songquan (Misty Valley and Pine Spring), Song Wenzhi

Archive Label 2003: Song Wenzhi was a master painter at Jiangsu Painting Institute since its establishment in 1957, an accomplished and popular artist who weathered the turbulence of the early days of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution without major difficulties. He was born in Taichong, Jiangsu Province, home of the seventeenth century "Four Wangs" whose neat and refined styles he followed in his early years, moving toward technical innovation and increased naturalism in mid-life. In the comparative freedom following the Cultural Revolution, Song experimented more freely exhibiting a brilliant understanding of atmosphere, light and space. In this painting Song has employed bold, free brushstrokes to depict the mountains and pines while leaving the paper unpainted to create the mist and waterfall. The inscriptionn informs us that the painting depicts Mt. Lu (Jiujing, Jiangxi Province). In good literati tradition, the painting was apparently created from memory. Mt. Lu's magnificent scenery has attracted the attention of countless artists and literati for more than a millenium. Archive Label date unknown: Sung Wen-chih was from T'ai-ts'ang, Chiangsu Province, which is the hometown of the Four Wangs of the seventeenth century, whose neat and refined styles he followed in his early years. But in this painting, Sung Wen-chih used rather free and bold brushstrokes to depict the mountain peaks and pines. The waterfall and mists were created by leaving the paper unpainted. The inscription on the middle left corner tells us that the painting depicts the scenery of Mount Lu in Kiangsi Province and that it was done in Chinling (Nanking) in Kiangsu Province. Apparently, Sung painted the picture from memory, like most other Chinese artists did since ancient time. Because of its magnificent beauty, Mount Lu has attracted the attention of countless artists and literati at least since the fourth century. Archive Label date unknown (before 1991): Inscription: "This view of Mt. Lu was painted by Wen-chih in the early summer of 1979 at Ching-ling [present-day Nanking]" As noted in the inscription, this work represents an actual view in China rather than a re-interpretation of a standard literati theme. In order to heighten the drama, Sung has presented us with a closeup scene. Wet applications of grey ink and blue color marvelously express the clouds and mist which threaten to envelop the mountains. Over this soft, wet layer were brushed dry, rough strokes of black ink which effectively suggest the sheer, rocky clifs.