Conversation in Autumn

Two figures sit conversing in a thatched cottage. This painting illustrates two poetic lines:

My guest came to sit beyond the dust,
In a narrow room, we talked about the autumnal sounds of autumn.

Hua Yan presented an intimate world—simple and rustic—amid a landscape. The cool wilderness depicted in this work conveys an aloofness that may reveal the inner world of a scholar-artist who failed the civil service examination but preserved a sense of pride and endurance in his humble surroundings.