Small dwelling in a dense grove of trees

A small, white-walled building sits partially hidden within a dense grove of tall trees. From the vegetation that grows up and over the distressed walls and roof of the structure, one senses that it is long neglected, if not a ruin, yet signs of human habitation linger in the form of chickens and an ox. Something round, likely a millstone, can be seen behind the wall of the compound. At the upper right of the scroll, the painter’s signature reads, “Painted three days before the winter solstice in the gengxu year of the Yongzheng reign period by Zaidong, Chen Mei.”

Chen Mei was an artist from Songjiang (in today’s Shanghai) who traveled north to serve the Qing court, where he studied with Jiao Bingzhen, a leading court painter who had trained in both European and Chinese painting techniques. This painting, dated 1730, is relatively early in Chen’s oeuvre, but it postdates his arrival at the court in Beijing, and it seems to evince a familiarity with European visual culture. Though he executed the work using exclusively Chinese materials of brush, ink, and the mineral and vegetable pigments, the painter also layered ink and pigments of close tonal value to create a diffuse, almost airbrushed effect that seems inspired by the play of light in European paintings.

Though he worked as a painter in the imperial workshops, Chen Mei also took work from private clients, and this painting comes from the latter context.