The Wangchuan Villa
date: label: Date
content: 17th century
label: Period
content: Ming or Qing dynasty
name: label: Artist
content: Traditionally attributed to Guo Zhongshu (傳)郭忠恕 (910-977)
notes: label: Label
content: Wangchuan Villa was the famous garden estate of the poet-painter Wang Wei (ca. 699-ca.761), who acquired the property around 740. Wang wrote twenty quatrains describing points of interest in the garden, and he illustrated the poetic mood of each site in a painting that ultimately became one of the most revered landscape scrolls in Chinese history. The composition provides a journey through a spectacular garden filled with sites designed to encourage quiet contemplation and at the same time suitable for entertaining visitors.
label: Label
content: The composition of the Wangchuan Villa has been preserved in generations of copies; this version is a standard copy of what Wang Wei's original painting was believed to look like. Names of the special scenic features of the garden are written above each scene, including Hollow at Meng's Wall, Bamboo Hill, Magnolia Park, and White Stone Shallows.
label: Label
content: That Wang Wei was a famous poet and painter as well as a garden designer helped inspire the Chinese view that these three deeply resonant arts can each serve equally well as expressions of a person's mind and personality.
label: Provenance
content: To 1911
label: Provenance
content: Yen Wat-sai, China, to 1911 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1911 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yen Wat-sai, in China, in 1911 [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. 747, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Note that the Accession List, Collections Management office, records the dealer’s name as Wen Yat-sai, rather than Yen Wat-sai. 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] See note 1.
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: Previous custodian or owner
content: Yen Wat-sai (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: Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)
label: Topic
content: Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911)
label: Topic
content: Wangchuan Villa
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
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: F1911.205
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 (overall): 30.8 x 438 cm (12 1/8 x 172 7/16 in)