Liang Kai served as a painter-in-attendance at the Song Imperial Painting Academy in Hangzhou from about 1201 to 1204; he relinquished that prestigious position to live and paint at a Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhist temple. Like his best-known paintings, preserved mostly in Japanese collections, this small landscape conveys a spiritual intensity. Under the great cliff, in the stillness of the landscape, a solitary figure meditates on the illusory world before him.
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Artwork Details
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南宋 梁楷 澤畔行吟圖 團扇
Title:Poet strolling by a marshy bank
Artist:Liang Kai (Chinese, active early 13th century)
Period:Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
Date:early 13th century
Culture:China
Medium:Fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on silk
Dimensions:Image: 9 x 9 9/16 in. (22.9 x 24.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988
Object Number:1989.363.14
Inscription: Artist's signature (2 characters in semi-cursive script)
Liang Kai 梁楷
Collector's seals
Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913-1988) Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 Hanguang Ge 漢光閣
John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)
London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Collection of John M. Crawford, Jr.," June 17, 1965–August 1, 1965.
New York. China House Gallery. "Selections of Chinese Art from Private Collections in the Metropolitan Area," November 15, 1966–February 15, 1967.
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. China Institute in America. "West Lake and the Mapping of Southern Song Art," September 13, 2001–December 9, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," August 28, 2004–February 20, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings," March 1–August 10, 2008.
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. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the Metropolitan Collection (Rotation Two)," May 7–October 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Show and Tell: Stories in Chinese Painting," October 29, 2016–August 6, 2017.
Weng, Wan-go, and Thomas Lawton. Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: A Pictorial Survey: 69 Fine Examples from the John Crawford, Jr. Collection. New York: Dover Publications, 1978, cat. no. 14.
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. 108, cat. no. A15-050.
Shih Shou-ch'ien, Maxwell K. Hearn, and Alfreda Murck. The John M. Crawford, Jr., Collection of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Checklist. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, p. 16, cat. no. 17.
Liang Kai quanji 梁楷全集 (Complete works of Liang Kai) Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1986, pp. 1–3, pl. 27.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 288–89, pl. 58.
Lee, Hui-shu. Exquisite Moments: West Lake & Southern Song Art. Exh. cat. New York: China Institute in America, 2001, p. 119, cat. no. 31.
Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 64–65, cat. no. 12.
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. 64–65, cat. no. 12.
Assistant Research Curator Shi-yee Liu discusses the three types of pictorial narratives explored in the exhibition Show and Tell: Stories in Chinese Painting.
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