By the mid-1670s Gong Xian’s confidence as a painter had taught him to avoid an overly skillful or popular style. He wrote:
“Nowadays when people paint they do only what appeals to the common eye; I alone do not seek to please the present.”
In this album, both paintings and inscriptions attest to Gong’s striving after a spiritual communion with earlier masters while creating a pictorial vocabulary all his own. Departing from his densely textured, monumental landscape style of the 1660s, Gong moved toward a sparser manner in which each brushstroke is made to function calligraphically as well as descriptively, embodying both expressive and representational meaning. The album’s format—paintings accompanied by art-historical comments—reminds us that Gong Xian taught painting for a living.
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Artwork Details
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清 龔賢 山水圖 冊
Title:Landscapes and trees
Artist:Gong Xian (Chinese, 1619–1689)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:ca. 1679
Culture:China
Medium:Album of twelve leaves; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image (each leaf): 6 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (15.9 x 19.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:From the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Family Collection, Gift of Wen and Constance Fong, in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Dillon, 1979
Accession Number:1979.499a–l
Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures[1]
Leaf A (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Being cautious about making painting, one is considered good at painting.
惟恐有畫，是謂能畫。
Leaf B (6 columns in semi-cursive script):
In [painting] wild willows, I actually followed Li Changheng [Li Liufang, 1575–1629], but lately whenever I see Changheng’s willows I feel rather dissatisfied. Is it possible that I have surpassed him? I must keep looking for a painting of willows by Changheng and compare again.
余荒柳實師李長蘅，然後來所見長蘅荒柳皆不滿意。豈余反過之耶？今而後仍欲痛索長蘅荒柳圖一見。
Leaf C (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
Zheng Qian [active mid-8th century] of the Tang dynasty made a painting called Ancient Trees in which the brushwork was round and the spirit deep. Not one artist of the Five Dynasties era [907–960] could match him, much less painters of a later age. That is why I try to imitate it.
唐鄭虔有《老樹圖》，筆圓氣厚，非五代人可及， 況其後乎？因摹之。
Leaf D (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
With Mi [Fu, 1052–1107] calligraphy stressed self-expression, and so did painting, to an even greater extent, which no one else can surpass. Thereafter, Ni [Zan, 1306–1374], Huang [Gongwang, 1269–1354], and the likes arose, and the trend spread. How could it have been otherwise?
書法至米而橫，畫至米而益橫，然蔑以加矣。是後遂有倪、黃輩出，風氣所開，不得不爾。
Leaf E (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
A monk asked his old master why mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly emerged. He answered, “Why do mountains, rivers, and the great earth suddenly emerge?" A painter who can understand this will never be lacking in mountains and valleys.
一僧問古德，何以忽有山河大地。答云：何以忽有山河大地？畫家能悟到此，則丘壑不窮。
Leaf F (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
Nowadays when people paint they only do what appeals to the common eye; I alone do not seek to please the present. I note this with a laugh.
今人畫竟從俗眼為轉移，余獨不求媚於當世。紀此一咲。
Leaf G (6 columns in semi-cursive script):
Landscape painting flourished during the Northern Song dynasty [960–1126] and, continuing throughout the Southern Song [1126–1279], it remained strong during the Yuan [1279–1368]. The painting of Yunlin [Ni Zan, 1306–1374] alone has a hoary substantiality. Later imitators have never understood this. Since they have never seen authentic works by the ancients, how can they imitate them?
Less is better than more; this is the advanced stage of a painter. Likewise, the [short] five-character-line quatrain is more difficult than any other form of poetry.
少少許勝多多許，畫家之進境也。故詩家五言截句難於諸體。
Leaf I (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
Being clever is not as good as being dull. The uses of cleverness can be grasped at a glance, while apparent dullness may embody limitless flavor.
用巧不如用拙。用巧一目了了，用拙味玩不窮。
Leaf J (6 columns in semi-cursive script):
Nowadays everyone talks about hills and valleys, one out of a hundred may speak of brush and ink, and one out of ten thousand may know about “breath-movement.” Breath-movement is not simply a matter of using ink wash; the density or sparseness of ink wash is still a matter of brush and ink.
今之言丘壑者一一，言筆墨者百一，言氣運者萬一。氣運非染也，若渲染深厚，仍是筆墨邊事。
Leaf K (6 columns in semi-cursive script):
In painting one need not follow any ancient masters. Among recent artists the brush and ink of Dong Huating [Dong Qichang, 1555–1636] is lofty and untrammeled and is quite likeable. Finishing this work, it looks like Longyou's [Yang Wencong, 1597–1645]. This is because in our youth Longyou and I both followed Huating.
畫不必遠師古人。近日如董華亭筆墨高逸，亦自可愛。此作成反似龍友，以余少時與龍友同師董華亭故也。
Leaf L (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
Among the abbreviated styles of painting, the Northern School is the first to be avoided. Today, if a collector has even one Northern School scroll in his collection, then all his other paintings are diminished. This must be recognized. Most importantly, there is no Northern School painter in the greater Wu area.
Label strip Lin Xiongguang 林熊光 (1898–1971), 1 column in standard script, undated; 1 seal (on dust cover):
龔半千山水精品册 [印]： 熊光
Collector’s seals
Lin Xiongguang 林熊光 (1898–1971) Lang An baoai 朗庵寶愛 Baosong Shi miji yin 寶宋室秘笈印 Lang An suocang 朗庵所藏
[1] Translations from Maxwell K. Hearn’s entry in Wai-kam Ho, ed., The Century of Tung Chʻi-chʻang 1555–1636. Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1992, 2 vols. Vol. 2, cat. no. 133, pp. 144-–5. Modified.
Mr. and Mrs. Wen C. Fong , Princeton, NJ (until 1979; donated to MMA)
Kansas City. William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts. "Kung Hsien, Theorist and Technician in Painting: A Loan Exhibition," May 1, 1969–July 15, 1969.
Kansas City. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," April 19–June 14, 1992.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," July 6–September 20, 1992.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," October 15, 1992–January 3, 1993.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)," February 2–August 18, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Dreams of Yellow Mountain: Landscapes of Survival in Seventeenth-Century China," September 13, 2003–February 22, 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. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Learning to Paint in Premodern China," February 18, 2023–January 7, 2024 on view February 18–July 16, 2023.
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. 173, cat. no. A18-061.
Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 162–69, cat. no. 36.
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. 162–69, cat. no. 36.
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