Artist: Yuan Yao

Dimensions: height: 189cm, width: 131cm

Ink on silk, hanging scroll

Painting of Valley and Pine Trees depicts the landscape on both banks of the Yangtze River Gorge. On one bank there are forests of old pine trees and steep rocks. The people on the trail are viewing and admiring the scenery of the opposite bank. Across the river are high mountains, steep valleys and abrupt cliffs covered by old pine trees. The plank roads are built along the cliff over valleys. We can see faint outlines of pavilions on the mountains, in which someone seems to be intonating while playing the zither. It looks like a fairyland. The waterfall from the mountain top falls abruptly, and the current in the river is rushing and surging. The whole picture is powerful and vigorous; the ink painting is precise and elegant, and the ink color rich in change of light and thick shades. The painting can be regarded as a fine work.

Yuan Yao, courtesy name Zhaodao, was born in Jiangdu (now Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province). He was born roughly in the late Kangxi’s Reign, and he died after the 43rd year of Qianlong’s Reign (the year 1778). He was good at paintings of landscape, especially pavilions. His occasional paintings of flowers and birds were also fine.