Landscape with House, Bridge over Stream

Object Details

• Artist

  Gong Xian (ca. 1610-1689)

• Label

  The scholar-painter Gong Xian was renowned for his individualistic style of painting which featured alternating applications of layers of dark ink brushwork and wash on top of each other to create strong, somber landscape forms. Gong Xian also exploited exaggerated contrasts of light and dark as well as open and closed spaces to achieve a striking luminosity and dramatic effect in his paintings. While some of his most famous paintings are remarkable for the daring instability of their compositions, this painting is unusually strong and well-balanced. In the inscription, Gong Xian mentions the artist Shen Zhou (1427-1509) whose style was characterized by blunt, forceful brushwork and stable images, and Gong seems to have been inspired by the earlier painter's work as a model for this album leaf.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  The Arts of China (November 18, 1990 to September 7, 2014)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1600s, 1690s

• Name

  Gong, Xian

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Bridges, Landscapes, Art, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Rivers

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings