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Remote Valleys, Sounds of Waterfalls, Deep Forests

Liu Yu Chinese
dated 1678
Not on view
Liu Yu, a Nanjing native, is not listed among the Eight Masters of Jinling (Nanjing), but he belonged to the same circle of leading collectors and artists active in the city during the late seventeenth century, when it was a vital center for the arts. Liu developed an eclectic style that combined the dry, linear brushwork of the Nanjing individualist Gong Xian (1619–1689) with the landscape forms and brush idioms of the Orthodox master Wang Hui (1632–1717). Liu further enlivened his integration of stylistic sources with playful shifts in scale and spatial distortions—visual effects intended to convey his "scholarly amateurism." Like other Nanjing masters of the time, Liu balanced his commitment to calligraphic abstraction with the desire to make his pictures visually appealing.

Here, alternating familiar scenes of human habitation with dramatic depictions of natural scenery, he created a landscape that engages viewers and transports them to another world.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 清　柳堉　幽谷深林圖　卷
  • Title: Remote Valleys, Sounds of Waterfalls, Deep Forests
  • Artist: Liu Yu (Chinese, 1620–after 1689)
  • Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
  • Date: dated 1678
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on paper
  • Dimensions: 10 5/8 in. × 12 ft. 1/8 in. (27 × 366.1 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill, 2015
  • Object Number: 2017.327.4
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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Traveling Amid Streams and Mountains, Liu Yu Chinese, Handscroll; ink on paper, China
Traveling Amid Streams and Mountains
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1680
Streams and Mountains without End, Wang Yuanqi Chinese, Handscroll; ink on paper, China
Streams and Mountains without End
Wang Yuanqi
ca. 1710
The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Three: Ji'nan to Mount Tai, Wang Hui and assistants Chinese, Handscroll; ink and color on silk, China
The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Three: Ji'nan to Mount Tai
Wang Hui
datable to 1698
Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land (Sukhavati), Distemper with gold on cloth, Central Tibet
Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land (Sukhavati)
Central Tibet
ca. 1700
Landscapes with poems, Gong Xian Chinese, Fifteen leaves from an album (1980.516.2a–c and 1981.4.1a–o) of eighteen leaves, China
Landscapes with poems
Gong Xian
1688

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