Landscapes in Various Styles after Old Masters

Mei Qing (Chinese, 1623–1697)

1690

Medium
album leaf: ink and color on paper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Overall: 28.6 x 44 cm (11 1/4 x 17 5/16 in.)
Culture
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
Credit line
John L. Severance Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This leaf presents a rising promontory in the near distance, whose base is hidden by a dense grove of barren, autumnal trees. A gentle incline emerges from the lower right, with a small path leading to its summit, where a gentleman is sheltered from the wind by two pines. This promontory resembles Guangming Ding 光明頂 (Summit of the Bright and Luminous), the second tallest peak in Huangshan 黃山 (Mt. Huang or Yellow Mountain), the scenic area that inspired much of Mei Qing’s artistic production. Instead of looking down on the “Sea of Clouds,” though, as one who scales Huangshan’s peak would, this gentleman is looking out at two boats on an actual sea.