Autumn Mountains 秋山圖

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."