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Landscapes with the Chinese Literati Su Shi and Tao Qian

1795–99
Not on view
The forbidding precipice painted on the left screen suggests a site on the Yangzi River where the Chinese poet Su Shi, also known as Dongpo (1037–1101), composed his famous “Ode on the Red Cliff.” The gentler scene on the right screen, depicting a scholar and attendants in a hut in a willow grove, is meant to represent the Chinese poet-recluse Tao Qian, or Tao Yuanming (365–472), at his country retreat. The artist seems to have set up an explicit contrast between the two scenes—Su’s forced exile (wild) against Tao’s self-imposed exile (calm). Born to a samurai-class family near the capital, Nagasawa Rosetsu chose the life of a painter, studying in the Kyoto studio of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795). Labeled one of the “Three Eccentrics” of the Edo period, he often exhibited a turbulent, bravura brush style and unconventional treatment of subject matter.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 山水唐人物図屏風
  • Title: Landscapes with the Chinese Literati Su Shi and Tao Qian
  • Artist: Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 (Japanese, 1754–1799)
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: 1795–99
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and gold leaf on paper
  • Dimensions: Image (each screen): 67 3/8 in. x 12 ft. 2 3/4 in. (171.1 x 372.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.268.75, .76
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

Audio

Cover Image for 8920. Landscape with Chinese Figures

8920. Landscape with Chinese Figures

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More Artwork

More Artwork
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Sparrows in a Plum Tree, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
Sparrows in a Plum Tree
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
second half of the 1790s
Two Women and a Puppy, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
Two Women and a Puppy
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1787–88
Carp, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan
Carp
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
probably early 19th century
Rats on a Scholar’s Desk , Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

Rats on a Scholar’s Desk

Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
ca. 1794–95
Tenjin Traveling to China, Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan
Tenjin Traveling to China
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1787–88

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