Landscape
In the inscription on this fan, Shitao sets forth his theory of painting, "the single stroke," or "the painting of oneness (yihua)":
On a windy, rainy, spring day, I am happy I have no visitors; my hand is free, my mind relaxed and cleansed. The ancients called it yihua, the "single stroke": a thousand hills, ten thousand valleys, people, bamboo, trees,a single brushstroke and all is completed. On one level, yihua constitutes a very practical concept: a complete design begins and finishes with the single brushstroke. On a metaphysical level, it suggests that "myriad strokes are reunited in oneness" through the mind and hand of the artist and through the artist's spiritual communion with nature.
On a windy, rainy, spring day, I am happy I have no visitors; my hand is free, my mind relaxed and cleansed. The ancients called it yihua, the "single stroke": a thousand hills, ten thousand valleys, people, bamboo, trees,a single brushstroke and all is completed. On one level, yihua constitutes a very practical concept: a complete design begins and finishes with the single brushstroke. On a metaphysical level, it suggests that "myriad strokes are reunited in oneness" through the mind and hand of the artist and through the artist's spiritual communion with nature.
Artwork Details
- 清 石濤 (朱若極) 山水圖 扇頁
- Title: Landscape
- Artist: Shitao (Zhu Ruoji) (Chinese, 1642–1707)
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: dated 1699
- Culture: China
- Medium: Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on gold-flecked paper
- Dimensions: 6 7/8 x 17 1/2 in. (17.5 x 44.5 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988
- Object Number: 1989.363.153
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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