Fragrant Mountains

The round, weighty brush strokes borrowed from the study of archaic scripts by late 19th century scholar artists are clearly seen in this fine ink landscape by Wu Dacheng.

As a Qing official, Wu Dacheng was a participant in several important events in 19th century history. When the Qing intervened in Annam in 1884 on behalf of the king against the French, Wu was sent to Tientsin to defend the city against the French attack. As governor of Guangdong, he negotiated customs duties on opium that continued to flow into the country through Canton and Macao, and without success recommended against ceding Macao to the Portuguese. As governor of Henan, he raised the standards of production in the lucrative silk and tea industries. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894, Wu took troops to defend a strategic northern mountain pass. His troops were defeated and he was dismissed from his post, after which he devoted his leisure to cultivating his talents as poet, calligrapher, seal cutter, connoisseur, collector, epigrapher and painter.