Song-Style Landscape

This landscape is by Qi Baishi (1864–1957), one of modern China’s representative painters. Baishi is primarily known for his small works of flowering plants and insects in pale colors that subscribe to a freehand style known as xieyi (literally “copied feelings”), in which the painter attempts to portray the sentiments and spirit of the subject. In these works, the brush is commonly loaded with ink or water colors. This landscape, however, is a rare example of his large paintings.
Qi Baishi’s name was Huang; however, he is primarily known by his alias of Baishi. Originally from Xiangtan in Hunan province, he studied painting while working as a carpenter or doing cabinetwork and joinery. Beginning in 1902 (Guangxu 28), he traveled five times over a sevenyear period to Shanxi, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and
Guangxi, after which he moved to Beijing, where he remained. Appreciation for Baishi’s paintings developed through the efforts of his friend, Chen Shizeng (1876–1923), who also encouraged him prajñāpāramitāto change his painting style.
This work was executed just as his reputation as a painter was beginning to grow and is based on his memories of one of China’s famous landscapes, Guilin in Guangxi, a spot he had visited. The remarkable sight of layers of pillarlike mountain peaks has been realized through even brushstrokes that do not vary in color gradation or thickness and that build up into a large composition. The same year, Qi Baishi painted Village Houses near the Bei River (Suma Collection, Kyoto National Museum). At this time, Baishi was focusing on attempts to utilize the landscape methods of the Song painters in his own works. This painting, however, is not in imitation of a specific painter and should rather be seen as an original creation that reinterprets the traits of Song-dynasty painting in a modern style.
The Japanese diplomat Suma Yakichirō (1892–1970), who was personally acquainted with Baishi, acquired the work for his collection. According to Suma’s notes on Qi Baishi, the artist told Suma that this work had required more strength than any other work he had produced.