Inscribed by the artist: "On the fourth day of the sixth lunar month of the jichou year of the Zhizheng reign era [June 19, 1349], Sheng Mou, Zizhao of Wutang, painted this Recluse Fisherman, Autumn Trees."
In the Yuan period, the recluse fisherman became the symbol of the unemployed scholar, out of work either by choice or because traditional employment through the civil service examination was unavailable to him. The true hermit-scholar "fished for fish and not for fame;" others merely pretended to fish while waiting to return to politics.
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Credit Line:Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Purchase, Florance Waterbury Bequest and Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Cummings, by exchange, 1973
Object Number:1973.121.13
Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (3 columns in standard script)
On the fourth of the sixth lunar month in the jichou year of the Zhizheng reign era [June 19, 1349] Sheng Mou, Zizhao, of Wutang [Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province] painted this Recluse Fisherman, Autumn Trees.
至正己丑六月四日武唐盛懋子昭作 《穐林漁隱》。
Artist's seal Zizhao 子昭
Collector’s seal
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (己千，C. C. Wang, 1907–2003) Jiqian xinshang 季遷心賞
[ 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. "Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art," September 10, 2005–January 8, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Four Seasons," January 28–August 13, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Yuan Revolution: Art and Dynastic Change," August 21, 2010–January 9, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close," January 25, 2020–June 27, 2021.
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, pp. 97, 106, 148, cat. no. 18.
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. 8, cat. no. A1-018.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, p. 455, pl. 104.
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