Clearing skies over Mount Hua 華嶽睛嵐圖
date: label: Date
content: 13th-14th century
label: Period
content: Jin or Yuan dynasty
name: label: Artist
content: Formerly attributed to Fan Kuan (傳)范寬 (ca. 960-ca. 1030)
notes: label: Label
content: Located on the eastern end of the Qinling Range in Shaanxi Province, Mount Hua has been venerated since antiquity as one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China. Home to many Daoist temples and monasteries, it was also a favorite destination for poets and painters seeking direct inspiration from nature. Among those was Fan Kuan, a Shaanxi native and one the greatest early masters of monumental landscape painting. A man of strong Daoist inclinations, Fan Kuan is said to have lived for many years among these mountains spending whole days and nights absorbed in deep concentration while seeking to internalize the infinitely variable forms and features of the hills and their changing seasonal appearance. As an artist, Fan Kuan was attracted to the dramatic aspects of nature and intrigued by the tactile surfaces of things, such as rocks and trees, as well as by the underlying "bone structure" of massive geological forms.
label: Label
content: With its strongly contoured mountains delineated in bold, powerful outlines, its harsh granite surfaces textured with distinctive dabs of ink known as "sesame seed" or "rain drop" dots, with its large rocks vigorously protruding from the edge of the foreground water, and its tiny human figures and precisely drawn houses and temples, this unsigned painting conforms in all particulars to the stylistic conventions of the Fan Kuan tradition and may preserve an earlier lost composition. It was probably created a few decades before 1340 when a Yuan dynasty viewer inscribed his name at lower left.
label: Label
content: To learn more about this and similar objects, visit http://www.asia.si.edu/SongYuan/default.asp Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy.
label: Provenance
content: To 1919
label: Provenance
content: You Xiaoxi (late 19th-early 20th century), Shanghai, to 1919 [1]
label: Provenance
content: 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from You Xiaoxi in 1919 [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. 1322, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. 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: Exhibition History
content: Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song dynasty (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)
label: Exhibition History
content: Style in Chinese Landscape Painting: The Song Legacy (May 17 to October 26, 2014)
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: Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: You Xiaoxi 游篠溪 (late 19th-early 20th century) (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: Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
label: Topic
content: mountain
label: Topic
content: Jin dynasty (1115 - 1234)
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: Related Online Resources
content: Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy
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: F1919.127a-b
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: 156 x 99.6 cm (61 7/16 x 39 3/16 in)