Ma Yuan, who served the court of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) in Hangzhou, was one of the first artists to realize the expressive potential of the album format. Most of his extant works have only survived as individual leaves, like this one. Yet the few known complete albums reveal Ma Yuan’s remarkable sensitivity to pacing and structure and his ability to tell a story through a series of linked scenes on the same theme. This leaf almost certainly belonged originally to such an album, in which the white-robed character, our protagonist, would have appeared in each leaf.
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Artwork Details
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南宋 馬遠 高士觀瀑圖 冊頁
Title:Scholar viewing a waterfall
Artist:Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190–1225)
Period:Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
Date:early 13th century
Culture:China
Medium:Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 9 7/8 x 10 1/4 in. (25.1 x 26 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973
Accession Number:1973.120.9
Inscription: Artist's signature (1 column in standard script)
Servitor, Ma Yuan
臣馬遠
Collector's seals
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907–2002) Jiqian xinshang 季遷心賞 Zhuli Guan 竹裏舘
C. C. Wang Family New York (by 1949–1973: sold to MMA)
New York. Asia House Gallery. "The Art of Southern Sung China," 1962.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Song and Yuan Paintings: Exhibition of Newly Acquired Chinese Paintings," November 1, 1973–January 20, 1974.
London. British Museum. "Song and Yuan Paintings," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Mountains: The Timeless Landscape," April 9–October 3, 1976.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Peach Blossom Spring," November 21, 1983–June 3, 1984.
Zurich. Museum Rietberg. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," April 2, 1996–July 7, 1996.
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," August 3, 1996–November 10, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Resonant Image: Tradition in Japanese Art (Part One)," 1997–98.
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. "Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill," September 10, 2002–February 9, 2003.
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. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings," March 1–August 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of the Chinese Album," September 6, 2014–March 29, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close," January 25, 2020–June 27, 2021.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Learning to Paint in Premodern China," February 18, 2023–January 7, 2024.
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, pp. 67, 78–79, 89, 142–43, cat. no. 9.
Cahill, James. An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Paintings: T'ang, Sung, and Yüan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
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, p. 8, cat. no. A1-019.
Barnhart, Richard M. Along the Border of Heaven: Sung and Yüan Paintings from the C. C. Wang Family Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 83–91, fig. 32.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 246, 273, pl. 51.
Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 56–57, cat. no. 9.
He Muwen 何慕文 (Hearn, Maxwell K.). Ruhe du Zhongguo hua: Daduhui Yishu Bowuguan cang Zhongguo shuhua jingpin daolan 如何读中国画 : 大都会艺术博物馆藏中国书画精品导览 (How to read Chinese paintings) Translated by Shi Jing 石静. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2015, pp. 56–57, cat. no. 9.
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