River Landscape

This handscroll opens to present a panorama of riverbanks with a pine-shaded country villa on the right. An elderly gentleman is receiving a visitor. A traveler rides on donkey back along twisted footpaths and open bridges, his servant following him. Across the river, the rolling hills present a vista that curves to the left, as if drifting between sky and water.

The handscroll demonstrates a transition of Chinese landscape painting from the Northern Song (960–1127) style of grandeur and monumentality to a more lyrical, impressionistic depiction of nature that typified Southern Song and Yuan painting. The picture evokes a popular theme in Chinese landscape painting known as “visiting recluses, ” which relates to the idea of being a hermit—retreating from society into a life of seclusion.