Landscape with Poems

Artists

Description

This long handscroll comprises a four-character frontispiece, a landscape painted in ink and color on silk, and a poem written in ink on paper in running script ("xingshu"). Both the painting and poem are signed "Zhengming", indicating that both works were created by the celebrated Ming-dynasty literati painter Wen Zhengming (1470-1559). Executed in the so-called "blue-green" manner (an archaistic mode of painting that evokes the vibrant malachite-blue and azurite-green mineral pigments used by early Chinese painters to color natural scenery), the painting depicts several figures--probably scholars and servants, based on the dress and accoutrements carried--positioned alone or in pairs at various points in the landscape. Figures are shown meandering along mountain a paths, gazing at a waterfall or across calm waters, or quietly meditating while floating on a skiff. The poem that follows the painting was written a year later than the painting, but it makes elegant reference to the landscape imagery that precedes it.

Dimensions

painting: H. 28 x W. 211.1 cm (11 x 83 1/8 in.) poem: H. 25.1 x W. 115.6 cm (9 7/8 x 45 1/2 in.) mounting: H. 34.2 cm (13 7/16 in.)

Provenance

[Through?], likely Beijing, sold; to Weng Xincun (1791-1862), by ineritance; to Weng Tonghe (1830-1904), by bequest; to Weng Zhenghan, by bequest; to Weng Ansun, by bequest; to Weng Zhilian (1883-1919), by bequest; to Weng Wan-go H.C. Weng (born 1918), 1919, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2010. NOTE: The Weng-Family collection was assembled mainly by Weng Tonghe (1830-1904), though Weng Tonghe acquired a few works by inheritance from his father, Weng Xincun (1791-1862). The majority of the works in the Weng-Family collection were acquired during Weng Tonghe's years of service in Beijing in the mid- to late nineteenth century. This scroll by Wen Zhengming likely was acquired in Beijing at that time. Thus, the probable direct line of provenance for this scroll is as follows: Possibly collected by Weng Xincun (1791-1862) Owned by Weng Tonghe (1830-1904); possibly acquired by inheritance from Weng Xincun, likely acquired by purchase in Beijing Weng Tonghe (1830-1904) by bequest to Weng Zhenghan Weng Zhenghan by bequest to Weng Ansun Weng Ansun by bequest to Weng Zhilian (1883-1919) Weng Zhilian by bequest to Weng Wan-go H.C. Weng (born 1918); thus, Wan-go H.C. Weng, the donor to the H/AM, acquired the scroll by inheritance in 1919, just a year after his birth. Wan-go H.C. Weng brought the Weng-Family collection, including this scroll from China to the United States late in 1948. The Weng-Collection inventory number is A-22.