Zhao Lingrang (also known as Zhao Danian), a scion of the Song imperial family, was forbidden by dynastic statutes to travel any distance from the capital; he therefore painted mostly intimate, local, suburban scenery. As a collector, Zhao learned painting by studying ancient masterworks rather than the often wild nature of northern China, as did his great contemporaries such as Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090). Turning his limitations into a virtue, Zhao strove to capture the mood of single lyrical moments with all their particular qualities, thereby presaging the more intimate "mind landscapes" of the Southern Song and Yuan periods.
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Frontispiece 1
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Artwork Details
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北宋 傳趙令穰 江村秋曉圖 卷 南宋 舊傳 趙令穰 江村秋曉圖 卷
Title:River Village in Autumn Dawn
Artist:After Zhao Lingrang (Chinese, active ca. 1070–1100)
Period:Song dynasty (960–1279)
Date:13th century
Culture:China
Medium:Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 9 5/16 x 41 in. (23.7 x 104.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1973
Accession Number:1973.121.2
Inscription: Frontispiece
Zhao Shizhen 趙士楨 (ca. 1553–1611), 4 large characters in seal script, undated:
River Village in Autumn Dawn
江邨秋曉
Label strip
Xu Naizhao 許乃釗 (1799–1878), 2 columns in standard script; dated 1844; 2 seals:
Zhao Danian's [Zhao Lingrang] River Village in Autumn Dawn, a marvelous work of the highest degree. In the first month of winter in the jiachen year of the Daoguang reign era [1844] the master of the Kanxi Zhai Studio [Xu Naipu, 1787–1866] asked his younger brother Naizhao to inscribe this title strip after remounting.[1] [Seals]: Naizhao, Xunfu
趙大年 《江村秋曉圖》。無上神品。道光甲辰孟冬重裝，堪喜齋主人命弟乃釗題簽。 [印]：乃釗、恂甫
Colophons
1. Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254–1322), 4 columns in standard script, undated; 1 seal:
Danian [Zhao Lingrang], as a young nobleman living in a peaceful time and amusing himself with brush and ink, showed a surprising grasp of the flavor of rivers and lakes. In this scroll the forests and trees are hoary and archaic, and people go about fishing and woodcutting unhurriedly. The flabby and vexatious life [of a young nobleman] is suddenly completely washed clean. When opening the scroll, we are fairly overwhelmed by the feelings stirred up by this hermitage by the sea. How such a scroll should be treasured.[2] Mengfu [Seal]: Zhao shi Zi’ang
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C.C. Wang, 1907–2003) Zhenze Wang shi Jiqian shoucang yin 震澤王氏季遷收藏印 Huaiyun Lou jianshang shuhua zhi ji 懷雲樓鑑賞書畫之記 Zhenze Wang shi Baowu Tang tushu ji 震澤王氏寳武堂圖書記 Wang Jiqian haiwai suojian mingji 王季遷海外所見名跡
[1] Translation from Department records [2] Translation from Wen C. Fong, Sung and Yuan Paintings, with catalogue by Marilyn Fu. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, p. 61.
[ C. C. Wang Family , New York, until 1973; sold to MMA]
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. "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. "Art of the Brush: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy," March 12–August 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Four Seasons," January 28–August 13, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Journeys: Mapping the Earth and Mind in Chinese Art," February 10–August 26, 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632–1717)," September 9, 2008–January 4, 2009.
Shanghai Museum. "Masterpieces of Chinese Tang, Song and Yuan Paintings from America," November 3, 2012–January 3, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, pp. 58, 61, 64–65, 72–73, 141, cat. no. 5.
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. 2, cat. no. A1-008.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 162–63, pl. 20.
Wu Sheng 吳升. Daguan lu 大觀錄 (Records from a grand view). Preface dated 1712, juan 13. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 8, p. 417.
Xie Zhiliu 謝稚柳. Shuimo hua 水墨画 (Ink painting) Translated by Sarah Shay 謝小珮. Shanghai: Shanghai chuban gongzu, 2011, p. 9, cat. no. 1.6.
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