Landscape after Li Cheng's "Hermitage Under the Cliff"

Dong Qichang was the most influential artist of the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Not only a painter, he was also the leader of a new critical movement which evaluated the history of calligraphy and painting and set a new course of development for both.

In his own work Dong’s approach to the past was anything but deferential. He instead radically transformed the models he borrowed. Dong’s real interest was in jolting the viewer’s perception both of nature and past styles by the arbitrary manipulation of form, seemingly illogical juxtapositions and deliberately un-ingratiating but expressive brushwork. The result is a style that may not initially seem easy on the eye, but which speaks to the highly original and startlingly modern intellect of this artist.