Landscape after Style of Ni Zan

Artist Wang Jian (Chinese, 1598 - 1677)

Date1656

MediumHanging scroll; ink on paper mounted on silk

DimensionsMount: 64 1/2 × 17 5/8 inches (163.83 × 44.78 cm)

Credit LineGift of Josephine Foote in memory of her parents, Dr. Nicholas and Eva Ann Pickard

Object number2008.24

Signedat end of inscription: "Wang Jian"

InscribedA poem and painter's signature on the upper part of the painting

On View

Not on view

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThe painting is mounted in light brown brocades. Below the painting is a piece of brocade in gold floral patterns. The painting features distant hills on the upper composition, a river in the middle, and foreground river shore on the lower painting. The river shore is built with an empty thatched pavilion and tall trees that vertically across over the landscape composition. The entire painting is delineated in monochrome ink in dry, short strokes. A poem and painter's signature are inscribed on top of this river landscape.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

In this tranquil river scene, Wang Jian pays tribute to Ni Zan (1301-1374), an icon of Chinese landscape painters. Ni Zan’s work influenced generations of artists, who sought to emulate his light brushwork, simple compositions, and understated simplicity. Floating above, a poetic inscription describes the peaceful vista.

Provenance

Possibly purchased in Japan by Dr. Nicholas S. Pickard (1910-1993), Mission Hills, KS, 1968-1993 [1];

His bequest to his daughter, Josephine (née Pickard) Foote, Cambridge, MA, 1993-2008 [2];

Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2008.

NOTES:

[1] Dr. Nicholas S. Pickard was an orthopedic surgeon who served as a trustee for the Nelson-Atkins and was active in the museum’s membership groups. According to Josephine Foote, her father Nicholas Pickard likely purchased this painting in Japan in 1968, when he took part in a trip to that country led by Nelson-Atkins Director and Curator of Asian Art Laurence Sickman. Pickard lent the painting to the Nelson-Atkins in 1969.

[2] The scroll remained in the possession of Dr. Pickard’s wife, Eva Ann McCluskey Pickard (1914-2008), per the provision of his bequest, until her death in 2008.

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