Daoist Retreat in Mountain and Stream (Landscape after Ni Zan [1301–1374])

1567

Lu Zhi

Lu Zhi (Chinese, 1496–1576)

Chinese Art

Daoist Retreat in Mountain and Stream (Landscape after Ni Zan [1301–1374]), 1567. Lu Zhi (Chinese, 1496–1576). Hanging scroll, ink on paper; overall: 109.1 x 45.8 cm (42 15/16 x 18 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1962.43

Original Source

Maker/Artist: Lu Zhi
Classification: Painting
Formatted Medium: hanging scroll, ink on paper
Medium: hanging, scroll, ink, paper
Dimensions: Overall: 109.1 x 45.8 cm (42 15/16 x 18 1/16 in.)
Inscribed: Inscription: Artist's inscription, signature, and 3 seals: In my youthful days I liked to imitate the ink method of Yün-lin [Ni Tsan]. Mr. Wen, the academician [Wen Cheng-ming], remarked that I barely succeeded in achieving some resemblance. He once honored me with the inscription "lofty and imperturbable indeed was the personality of Ni Yü [Ni, the Odd]. Pale ink and blue smoke were formed by his scribbling brush. His surviving works have become so rare in the last two hundred years; only Pao-shan [Lu Chih] carries on his true tradition." In my older years, having to comply with frequent requests for paintings, my brushwork has become stronger than before and I thought to myself that I may have surpassed the Old Master. In the ting-mou year of the Lung-ch'ing era [1567] a friend brought a small painting [by Ni Tsan] and showed it to me in the mountains. I studied and enjoyed it for a long time, then realized that I was actually inferior. This gave me second thoughts about my earlier style, so I selected a piece of old window paper and did this painting in imitation. My friend was kind enough to say that it was truly a quick and close resemblance. I then wrote a colophon and presented the painting to him. My poem says: High mountains and distant waters are the thoughts coming from the lute; The drunken leaves and the sparse woods are merely flowers in the mirror. This idea, I'm sure, will be understood by Tzu-ch'i, one who appreciates my art, It is for him that I have painted on thin paper with light touches, The cloudy color of an autumn evening. This is the winter solstice of the same year. By then, Pao-shan, Mr. Lu, was already over seventy years of age. Could it be that one's brush also gets old together with one's age, as the saying goes. I put down my brush with a laugh. [2 seals] Lu Shu-p'ing shih, Pao-shan tzu. [seal, bottom left corner] Lu Chih shu-p'ing. trans. WKH 6 additional seals of Chu Ching-hou (n.d.).
Departments: Chinese Art
Accession Number: 1962.43
Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Exhibitions: Year in Review - 1962, Fifteen Chinese Paintings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Colors of Ink, Visions of Landscape: East and West, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1956: Tseng, Loan Exhibition, cat. no. 21.<br>Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass., 1964: Fifteen Chinese Paintings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, no catalogue.<br>Asia House Gallery, New York, 1974: Lee, Colors of Ink, cat. no. 31.<br>Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981: Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, cat. no. 183, p. 234-235.
Rights Statement: CC0