Landscape in the Manner of Zhao Mengfu

Wang Jian’s painting includes a variety of brush techniques, ranging from long flowing strokes and short ropey lines, to soft dabs and sharp splotchy dots. It also combines “wet” and “dry” brush techniques to produce a saturated, solid appearance as well as a crumbly, weathered appearance. This variety of techniques, and the skill with which they are executed, make this painting a virtuoso example of Orthodox brushwork.

This scroll also exhibits an ideal Orthodox school composition that is complex, yet well integrated. There are three distinct arrangements of landscape forms: the horizontal, tripartite division between fore-, middle, and background; the central vertical axis formed by the tree group, the rocky knoll, and the foothill of the mountains; and the diagonal grouping of the forms from the right foreground to the left background.

According to Wang Jian’s inscription, this painting follows the style of a Yuan master Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322). By alluding to Zhao, Wang invites the knowledgeable viewer to look at this painting in the context of a long artistic tradition, and to compare it mentally to other works in that lineage. The inscription adds extra richness and complexity to the formal qualities of the painting, while at the same time it enforces a certain social exclusivity. By restricting a full appreciation of this painting to those who had an extensive knowledge of Chinese art history and culture, this painting exemplifies the Orthodox-school belief that their ideology should dictate the creation of the painting, as well as the viewing of it.