# Autumn Mountains 秋山圖

- By: Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470-1559)
- Date: Ming dynasty (1368–1644), early 16th century 明朝
- Medium: Handscroll; ink on gold-flecked paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 32 × 489 cm (12 9/16 × 192 1/2 in.)
- Culture: China
- Credit line: Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/62536)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/b73febc4-d31c-41e3-bd59-db48c387f59e/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The eminent scholar-painter Wen Zhengming mastered disciplined but unassertive brushwork to create subtly powerful and often poignant compositions. Ascending a steep mountain path, a man with a walking staff is the solitary inhabitant of this landscape; desolate huts and clustered groves of thin trees are his only neighbors. Horizontal strokes accent the densely layered and partially shadowed mountain contours – an intriguing blend or representational form and surface texture.

A poetic colophon by Shao Bao (1460-1527) is inscribed after the painting: In the Dao of painting, spring mountains are admired, But one can sympathize even more with autumn mountains. High winds overwhelm strong trees, Heavy rains - one can really see the springs. Tallow and plum trees are thin, Maple groves and apricot \[trees\] fade and groan. Yet when winter follows this, The pine and cypress are just as before." (translation by Stephen Little)

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0