Hawk Pursuing Water Birds

Object Details

• Artist

  Follower of Lin Liang (ca. 1428-ca. 1495)

  Formerly attributed to Chao Yuezhi (1059-1129)

• School/Tradition

  Zhe School

• Label

  The style of this painting is close to that of Lin Liang, one of the most stellar fifteenth-century painters active at the court of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). This composition painted by one of his followers may preserve one of the great master's own lost works. The twentieth-century inscriptions on the work falsely assign it to a Song dynasty (960-1279) artist and can be disregarded as intrusive, later additions.

  Lin Liang's work features swift, bold brushstrokes, but here a slight stiffness and flatness reveal that it was a follower who created the painting. The brushwork here only hints at the brilliantly laid-out, tightly structured compositions of Lin that come to life with carefully paced movement of birds in flight. This work probably represents the court aesthetic at a level enjoyed by princely households outside of the palace.

  Close observation of nature was one of the key features of Lin Liang's style-in particular, he mastered an idiom of marshes teeming with plants and water fowl that in their remoteness seemed desirable to his clientele living in busy, urban Beijing. Here, the waterfowl are prey to a swooping hawk, whose earthward lunge symbolizes strength and power. Predatory birds in fifteenth-century court-style painting became iconic images of the dynasty's vitality.

• Provenance

  To 1919

  You Xiaoxi (late 19th-early 20th century), Shanghai, to 1919 [1]

  1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from You Xiaoxi in 1919 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, L. 1341, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Falcons: The Art of the Hunt (January 15 to July 17, 2022)

  Winged Spirits: Birds in Chinese Painting (February 11 to August 5, 2012)

  Luxury and Luminosity: Visual Culture and the Ming Court (July 3, 2004 to June 26, 2005)

• Previous custodian or owner

  You Xiaoxi 游篠溪 (late 19th-early 20th century) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1400s, 1520s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, You, Xiaoxi

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Chinese Art, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), Herons, Hawk

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings