Enjoying the Wilderness in an Autumn Grove
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Ink |
| Current Location: | Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York |
| Location History: | Was created in 1339 by artist Ni-Zan for an acquaintance named Xiaoshan Xiaoshan later returned it to Ni-Zan later in 1354 for additional poetic inscription < it then stayed circling the family and the private collectors and family estates in China accumulating traditional collectors' seals over the dynasties in 20th century the painting was acquired by John M. Crawford Jr. a prominent New York - based collector upon John M. Crawford Jr. death in 1988 Crawford bequeathed his landmark collection of Chinese art to Metropolitan Museum of Art officially entering the museums permanent collection in 1989 under the accession number 1989.363.38. |
Enjoying the wilderness in and Autumn Grove is a famous Chinese landscape painting made in 1339 by the scholar and artist Ni-Zan during Yuan dynasty it is a vertical hanging scroll created with black ink on paper. The painting is split into 2 parts with a large body of water in the middle which is left black to create a feeling of open space, in front there is a group of tall and thin trees with autumn leaves right next to the trees sits a straw roof hut, inside it there is a person surrounded by books and tools looking at the calming landscape in the far background there are hills rising above the water . Ni-Zan used a dry brush technique with thin, delicate ink stokes to pain the trees and the land making the scene feel quiet and calm at the top of the scroll Ni-Zan wrote a poem and a short message explaining how he painted it the poem translates to: " How I delight in autumn, both the inkstone and mat cool; With the bamboo shade rolled up, a fine dew on my robe. Forest gate and cave mouth bring forth fresh pleasures; Green rain and yellow mist enclose my remote bed. In the bright days, bamboo wave in the breeze; In the dark nights, parasols of fir hold up the moon. Burning incense I use [a censer in the form of] a gilded duck; Gathering scattered petals I place them inside my pillow." In the introduction note before the poem Ni-Zan explains that after her finished painting for his friend Xiaoshan ,his friend brought it back to him in autumn to ask for an inscription . Ni-Zan then decided to write a poem he recently composed after seeing the cassia trees blooming outside his studio he signed off at the end of the text saying :"on the fourteenth day of the ninth lunar month of jimao year(October 16,1339) , Yunlinsheng, Ni-Zan over the next hundred years later the collectors and artists stamped their red seal and wrote their own notes directly on the paper , showing how the painting traveled through different hands before it reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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