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A work made of hanging scroll; ink and light colors on paper.

Water Pavilion by Twin Pines

Yuan or early Ming dynasty, 14th–15th century

Artist unknown Chinese, early 14th century

China

This landscape was attributed to the Northern Song court painter Guo Xi (c. 1001-c. 1090) by the authors of early 20th-century colophons that accompany the painting. The depiction of figures gazing out from two water pavilions at the foot of a rocky outcrop—as well as a dramatic clusters of old pine-trees and billowing, restless forms of mountain-ridges that rise from valleys into the high distance—are all features associated with Guo Xi’s iconic landscapes. The relatively looser composition and hybrid brushwork, however, point to a Yuan re-interpretation of this Northern Song style. A seal on the painting that may be associated with a Yuan scholar named Wu Fang supports this fourteenth-century date.

Hanging scroll; ink and light colors on paper

Arts of Asia