A twelfth-century couplet inscribed on the wall of a tavern characterized the lives of the fisherman and the scholar-official:
Right and wrong reach not where men fish; Glory and disgrace dog the official riding his horse.
To painters living in the tumultuous days of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the theme of the fisherman symbolized a perfect escape from their strife-torn world. Wang Fu, a fellow townsman of Ni Zan (1306–1374), returned to Wuxi in 1401, after twenty years of exile at the desolate northern outpost of Datong, Shanxi Province; like Ni Zan, he had been a wanderer in his native land. In this long scroll Wang echoes Wu Zhen's (1280–1354) treatment of the fisherman theme. Poised between descriptive realism and calligraphic abstraction, Wang's painting exemplifies how Ming- and Qing-dynasty scholar-artists expressed themselves through the brush idioms of the Song and Yuan masters.
15. Qian Ya 錢厓 （1897–1967）, 1 column in standard script, dated 1944; 2 seals:
甲申新春叔厓敬觀。 [印]： 叔、厓
Collectors’ seals
Shen Du 沈度 （1357–1434） 雲閒沈度 瑤臺雪鶴
Jin Zong 金琮 （1449–1501） 元玉之印
Fang Junyi 方濬頤 （1815–1889） 曾在方夢園家
Wu Hufan 吳湖帆 （1894–1968） 湖帆鋻賞
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907–2003) 王氏季遷珍藏之印 震澤王氏季遷收藏印 懷雲樓鋻賞書畫之記 季遷 季遷珍藏 雙林書屋
Unidentified 張氏鼎元 汲黯朱雲伯仲閒 泰和蕭氏珍藏
[1] Viktoria von Winterfeldt-Contag (1906–1973).
[ Ellen B. Elliott , Princeton, NJ, 1981; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C.C.Wang Family Collection," September 2, 1999–January 9, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Douglas Dillon Legacy: Chinese Painting for the Metropolitan Museum," March 12–August 8, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bridging East and West: The Chinese Diaspora and Lin Yutang," September 15, 2007–February 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632–1717)," September 9, 2008–January 4, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance," January 23–September 13, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Yuan Revolution: Art and Dynastic Change," August 21, 2010–January 9, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats," August 18, 2012–January 6, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.
Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, pp. 132–33, cat. no. A17-060.
Hearn, Maxwell K. Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, [2013], p. 119, fig. 92.
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