Landscapes after Tang-dynasty poems

Inscription: Artist's inscriptions and signatures

Leaf 1 (3 columns in semi-cursive script)

Tall trees at dawn, still thick.
Distant mountains beneath clear skies, even more.[1]

Sheng Maoye

高樹曉還密，遠山晴更多。
盛茂曄


Leaf 2 (3 columns in semi-cursive script)

Cliff flowers dot the cold stream.
Stone steps are swept by spring clouds.

Sheng Maoye

簷花點寒溜，石磴掃芳雲。
盛茂曄


Leaf 3 (3 columns in semi-cursive script)

Birds roost in the tree by the pond.
A monk knocks at the gate under the moonlight.

Sheng Maoye

鳥宿池邊樹，僧敲月下門。
盛茂曄


Leaf 4 (2 columns in semi-cursive script)

Beyond the solitary candle, a thousand peaks.
Strips of rain, in the middle of the night.

Sheng Maoye

千峰孤竹外，片雨一更中。
盛茂曄


Leaf 5 (3 columns in semi-cursive script)

Cock’s crow in the moonlight at a thatched inn.
Human footprints in the frost on the wood plank bridge.

Sheng Maoye

雞聲茆店月，人跡板橋霜。
盛茂曄


Leaf 6 (2 columns in semi-cursive script)

The mist is mysterious and calm amidst the trees.
The wind is full and expansive along the shore’s breakers.

Sheng Maoye

霧隱平郊樹，風含廣岸波。
盛茂曄


Artist’s seals (on each leaf)

Yuhua (relief, small square) 與華
Youxin qiuhe (intaglio, square) 游心丘壑


Collectors’ seals

Huang Bohou 黃伯厚 (19世紀)
禺北黃氏伯厚珍藏 (on each leaf)

Unidentified
孔毅審定 (Leaf 3)
孔毅所藏 (Leaf 5 and 6)
稻香草廬藏寳 (Leaf 2 and 3)

Illegible: 1
囗田


[1] All translations by Richard Pegg.

Richard B. Hobart , Cambridge, MA (until d. 1963, posthumous sale at Parke-Bernet Galleries, the Richard Bryant Hobart collection of Chinese ceramics & paintings, part 2, December 12, 1969, New York, lot 269, to MMA)

University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period," November 9, 1971–January 2, 1972.

Cambridge. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums. "The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period," February 12, 1972–April 2, 1972.

Princeton University. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," December 8, 1973–February 3, 1974.

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," July 10, 1974–September 2, 1974.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," September 15, 1974–November 3, 1974.

University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "Edinburgh Festival," August 1, 1984–September 15, 1984.

Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Chinese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection," April 15, 1986–June 29, 1986.

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. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.

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. 15, cat. no. A1-085.