Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Listening to the Waterfall in a Valley of Pines
Fu Baoshi Chinese
Not on view
The compactness of composition and the restless energy of this powerful work suggest inspiration from the late Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) master, Wang Meng (ca. 1308–1385). What gives it a modernist edge is, above all, the daring pointillist technique employed to characterize the rugged bluff to the left of the waterfall. Unlike anything in traditional Chinese painting, these rock formations are shaped solely by clusters of wet dots of varying tonalities. They recall the Impressionist feat of capturing light’s movements. Fu’s arbitrary application of the dots, however, reveals his Expressionist instincts.
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