Winter Crows over Withered Trees
Artist
Wu Huayuan
(Chinese, 1894 - 1972)
Dateafter 1964
MaterialsInk on paper
DimensionsH. 77 in x W. 21 1/2 in, H. 195.6 cm x W. 54.6 cm (overall); H. 40 in x W. 13 3/8 in, H. 101.6 cm x W. 34.0 cm (image)
Credit LineThe Yeh Family Collection
Object number2007.111
DepartmentChinese Art
ClassificationsPainting
On View
Not on viewSignedSignature: "by an accident I met Mr. Gongchao. As a master of the studio, he offered an inkstone with plenty ink, with which I playfully painted this in longing for his correction. Wu Zishen"
Seal: Wu Zishen's work after age 70
More InformationAccording to the inscription on this piece, Ye Gongchao and Wu Huayuan met sometime during the mid-1960s, at which time Wu painted this work and gave it to Gongchao as a gift.
Wu decided to "paint the scene playfully"; rather than attempt a formal landscape with a complicated composition, he created a straightforward autumn scene of crows flying over withered trees. Painted from a high viewpoint, the landscape appears to expand from the stream in the foreground hillsides into waters that widen and diffuse as they reach the far horizon. Wu's measured progression from foreground to background is enhanced by his brushwork and gradual variation of ink tonalities, which shift from dark at the bottom to light at the top.
Wu decided to "paint the scene playfully"; rather than attempt a formal landscape with a complicated composition, he created a straightforward autumn scene of crows flying over withered trees. Painted from a high viewpoint, the landscape appears to expand from the stream in the foreground hillsides into waters that widen and diffuse as they reach the far horizon. Wu's measured progression from foreground to background is enhanced by his brushwork and gradual variation of ink tonalities, which shift from dark at the bottom to light at the top.
approx. 1700-1800
Zhang Bu