

Scholar by a Waterfall, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), late 12th–early 13th century
Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190–1225)
Album leaf: ink and color on silk
Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190–1225)
Album leaf: ink and color on silk
9 7/8 x 10 1/4 in. (25.1 x 26 cm)
Signed: "Servitor, Ma Yuan"
Ex coll.: C.C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.9)
Ma Yuan, a fourth-generation member of a family of painters, was a leading artist at the Southern Song painting academy in Hangzhou. A city of unsurpassed beauty, Hangzhou was graced with pavilions, gardens, and scenic vistas. In this album leaf, which shows a gentleman in a gardenlike setting, the jagged rhythms of the pine tree and garden contrast with the quiet mood of the scholar, who gazes pensively into the bubbling rapids of the cascade.







