The Baoshan Island

This almost five-meter long painting in a handscrol format is one of the major ancient Chinese paintings in our collection. It captures the island of Baoshan on Lake Dongting in southern China. The artwork includes countless mountain peaks for which the landscape is famous; scattered among them are waterfalls and streams, mysterious caves, forests and figures of scholars. The painting is done in so-called blue-and-green style in reference to the archaic landscape ideal found on walls and folding screens during the Tang dynasty. The artwork is dated 1554 and signed by Wen Zhengming, one of “the four great Ming masters”. Nevertheless, this renowned scholar-artist had a large painting workshop in which his sons and grandsons also worked. Therefore, it is often difficult to identify whether a work was done by the master or a close follower. This scroll includes two more inscriptions – the first by Wen Zhengming’s pupil Zhou Zhimian, who was active at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Therefore, this period can be seen as the most probable date of the painting.