Zhao Zuo (Chinese). Mountain Landscape. 1619. Museum purchase. 1972.188.

mount height: 110 1/4 in, 280.035 cm; mount width: 31 1/8 in, 79.0575 cm; image height: 82 in, 208.28 cm; image width: 25 1/4 in, 64.135 cm; overall width: 34 5/8 in, 87.9475 cm

Layers of mountain peaks, flying falls. In autumn of the year Chi Wei (1619). trans. by Sylvia Chia, 1982.

Arts of Asia

Arts of Asia

Zhao Zuo
Chinese
Layered Mountains and Running Waterfall
1619, Ming Dynasty 
Ink and Color on Paper
Gift of Harry Lenart

The theme of retreat to nature was a popular one for the educated elite of Ming dynasty of China. The painter of this work, Zhao Zuo, was closely associated with the influential literati artist and theorist Dong Qichang and was a founder of the Songjiang school, an active group advocating literati-style paintings in the early seventeenth century. Their artistic practice and theory had significant impacts on the Japanese bunjinga (literati) artists such as Ike no Taiga. 

Collection of (Jean-Pierre Dubosc), Paris, France and Toyko, Japan, by 1972; Purchased by the Denver Art Museum, 1972.