Landscape

Bada Shanren only began to paint landscapes seriously in the mid-1690s, around the age of seventy, and toward the end of the decade he created several large-scale works using ink and light color, such as the painting seen here. While Bada failed to note any particular stylistic affiliation for this scroll, like many of his landscape paintings, it clearly reflects his admiration for the tenth-century master Dong Yuan (died 962), who was regarded as the founder of the so-called Southern School of landscape painting. Dong's typical landscape elements, such as rounded rock formations and low, rolling hills, are reinterpreted here by Bada Shanren with energetic and restless brushwork. Executed with sure mastery, the dark, dense masses of the mountains and moist foliage of the trees, the spontaneous variation of ink tones and skillful use of ink washes to texture the rock surfaces, all bespeak an artist at the height of his creative powers.