Mount Emei under Heavy Snow 《峩眉積雪圖》
date: label: Date
content: 17th century
label: Period
content: Ming or Qing dynasty
name: label: Artist
content: Formerly attributed to Guo Xi (傳)郭熙 (ca. 1001-1090)
notes: label: Label
content: Silhouetting the convoluted edges of covered rocks and a complex tracery of dark, leafless branches against the uniform whiteness of deep winter snow, the unknown artist of this work created a frozen landscape of stark dramatic appeal and arresting visual intensity. Mount Emei towers above the western Sichuan Basin and is one of the Four Holy Mountains of Chinese Buddhism. Then, as now, temples perch and cluster on its slopes, rustic villages nestle along winding streams, visitors and pilgrims take lodging at scenic vistas, and plunging waterfalls cascade down precipitious cliffs.
label: Label
content: The composition represented in this painting was probably devised by an unknown artist of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) and became part of the general vocabulary of Chinese mountain painting. Ranging in date from the eleventh to eighteenth century, at least ten different versions of the composition survive today under a variety of titles. Many of these are attributed to either Li Cheng or Guo Xi, whose received style continued to evolve of the centuries. This painting is a fine example of the Li-Guo style as practiced during the late Ming and early Qing. Guo Xi's forged signature at lower left was probably added as a calculated attempt to fool and inexpert viewer or potential customer.
label: Provenance
content: To 1915
label: Provenance
content: L.C. Pang Collection (1864-1949), Chekiang, China, to 1915 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1915 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the L.C. Pang Collection, through C. T. Loo, in San Francisco, in 1915 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, L. 958, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, P'ang Catalogue, No. 23, 1915. This object exhibits seals, colophons, or inscriptions that could provide additional information regarding the object’s history; see Curatorial Remarks in the object record for further details.
label: Provenance
content: [2] According to an Accession List note, Charles Lang Freer purchased F1915.17- F1915.26 from the L.C. Pang Collection of Chekiang, China, through C. T. Loo, while at San Francisco in April 1915. Payment was made through Leyer and Co. of Shanghai, China. See Voucher no. 3, May 1915. According to Curatorial Remark 7, an undated folder sheet note, in the object record, this object was reproduced in Osvald Sire´n, Chinese Paintings in American Collections, Paris and Brussels: G. van Oest (1928), Part 5, plate 178.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Seasons: Chinese Landscapes (December 18, 2010 to June 12, 2011)
label: Exhibition History
content: In the Mountains (January 31 to August 2, 1998)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Landscape Painting (November 15, 1980 to March 6, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art—Stone Sculpture (September 1, 1979 to March 14, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Ching Dynasty Paintings (June 15, 1979 to November 6, 1979)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Pang Yuanji 龐元濟 (1864-1949) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: China
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: winter
label: Topic
content: Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)
label: Topic
content: Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911)
label: Topic
content: snow
label: Topic
content: temple
label: Topic
content: Mount Emei
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
label: Topic
content: village
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1915.20
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 181 x 109.8 cm (71 1/4 x 43 1/4 in)