River landscape with scholar in a boat
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Zhou Chen was a professional painter who lived and worked in Suzhou during the time of Wen Zhengming. Little is known about Zhou’s life—unlike the scholar Wen and his friends, professional artists like Zhou did not publish autobiographical writings, and little was written about them—but paintings like this one reveal an extremely assured hand that combines the polished atmospherics of court painting with a gentle touch that might have appealed to scholars of the day. Zhou’s influence on the Suzhou painting scene was expanded through his students Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, both of whom mixed with the circle of Wen Zhengming.
Artwork Details
- 明 周臣 山水人物圖 軸
- Title: River landscape with scholar in a boat
- Artist: Zhou Chen (Chinese, ca. 1455–after 1536)
- Period: Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Date: early 16th century
- Culture: China
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 48 1/8 × 24 5/8 in. (122.2 × 62.5 cm)
Overall with mounting: 86 in. × 29 3/4 in. (218.4 × 75.6 cm)
Overall with knobs: 86 in. × 33 1/4 in. (218.4 × 84.5 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by Oscar Tang and Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art