Gazing at Snow along the Riverbank

Li Liufang came from a wealthy family in Jiading (now part of Shanghai), with roots in Anhui province. Li earned a juren degree in 1606, but gave up his pursuit of an official career and built an estate, devoting himself to gardening, painting, and poetry. He traveled frequently, and was a companion to many of the leading literati artists and writers of his day. He is classified among the "Nine Friends of Painting," a group of artists associated with Dong Qichang (1555-1636). He is also considered a forerunner of the Anhui School of painting. This sketchy, improvisational landscape brilliantly exemplifies the creative tension between style and content that characterizes many of the best Chinese paintings from the period. Li Liufang wrote an inscription at the end of the painting: On the fifth day before the Winter Solstice of the bingchen year [1616], I boarded a boat at Tangxi. As the cold rain turned to snow, I took a piece of gold-ground paper a friend had sent me and sketched this picture, Gazing at Snow along the Riverbank. (Translated by Charles Mason) With this knowledge, the simple, austere brushstrokes of the trees and hills can be read as signs of winter desolation, the broad gray ink washes surrounding the landscape forms are brooding skies, and the metallic glint of the paper evokes the crisp chill of icy air.