Spring Water Flows out of Gorge

"Spring Water Flows out of Gorge" was created by Zhang Yin during his middle-aged years. Zhang was the founder of "Beijing water painting school". Zhang Yin was dissatisfied with the conservative painting trend after the mid Qing Dynasty. He followed the Song and Yuan painting traditions and combined with creation of actual Jiangnan landscapes, with strong realistic feature and distinctive local characteristics. "Spring Water Flows out of Gorge" depicted the scene of coming spring and melting of ice and snow. With an aerial perspective, he painted ranges of mountains, peaks and gorges with strong and dense color; the mountains and rocks are in hierarchical structure. The lush vegetation on rocks makes the rocks well arranged. The pine trees are decorative, which is Zhang Yin’s iconic painting method. In the upper part of the painting, there are clouds and fog, which are fading away but endless. The slightly square shaped peaks form heavy images which are reflected in the clouds and fog. The river pours down from the upper left side, presenting a ">" shape all through the paining, which is strong and forcible. The whole mountain shape and structure follows "great mountains and grand water" painting style of Song Dynasty, but the landscape scenery has Zhenjiang local characteristics, which embodies a new and fresh painting style in "Beijing water painting school" which was represented by Zhang Yin, not falling vulgar but expressing really interests of landscape.