Landscape with Waterfall

Known as a pioneer of “Neoclassicism” in Chinese national painting, Huang Junbi presents a traditional-style landscape with two figures walking along a stream in a mist-shrouded valley. In the middle ground a secluded village is tucked into a fold in the mountains. The chilly autumn season is indicated by the few red leaves hanging on the nearly bare limbs of scattered deciduous trees.

A native of Guangdong, Huang Junbi began studying painting in his youth by copying ancient masterpieces. Like many fellow artists, in 1949 Huang left mainland China for Taiwan and pursued a successful artistic and teaching career at Taiwan Normal University. He was influential in promoting conservative painting styles, and among his social elite students was Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1898–2003). He also sojourned in the United States several times, and he often painted for his patrons with the studio name Baiyuntang (White-Cloud Studio).