Up the River During Qingming

Little is known about Shen Yuan, but he excelled at painting Buddhist figures and landscape scenes with ruled-line architecture. He served the Qing court during the Qianlong reign (1736-1795). Shen Yuan’s composition and arrangement of the scenes in this painting are almost identical to those in the Qing dynasty court version of “Up the River During Qingming.” It differs only in terms of certain details, such as the scene of crying by the grave during tomb sweeping near the beginning of the rustic scene at the right and the inclusion of an inn and shops by the side of the arched bridge in the middle part. There are also some discrepancies in terms of the shop names as well as the structure and painting method of the architecture, the arrangement of the garden scene in the top-scholar’s mansion likewise slightly different. This scroll is done on paper and mostly in ink with only a few washes of ochre added to the outlines of the figures and buildings to give it a fresh and elegant manner. The rendering of the bridge beams, buildings, and figures is exceptionally precise and orderly, making this a fine example from the Painting Academy of the Qing dynasty court.