Hermit in Mountain

Zhou Chen is a painter in Ming Dynasty, born in Suzhou, courtesy name Shunqin, and pseudonym Dongcun. He has two well-known pupils, Tang Yin and Chou Ying. He is a professional painter, as famous as Dai Jin at that time. He follows the step of Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Li Tang and Ma Yuan, combining the style of academy painting together with literati painting. His brushwork of landscape paintings are skillful and precise, with steep mountains and rough stones, while human figures in his works are eccentric and totally different from each other. This fan leaf is painted with ink on gilded paper, delineating the joyful life in the mountains, miles of pine trees, vines ariot everywhere and bushes surrounding. There is a cottage under the tree, a literatus in it appreciating the mountain view. On the river floats a boat, and the man pointing toward the cottage should be a visitor. The work is painted in an impressional way, with great amount of details, so it is certainly worth a careful appreciation.