Spring Coming from the Mountain

This work is the largest of some two hundred extant paintings by Su Renshan and was completed when he was 30. Su was a native of Shunde, Guandong province. A rare prodigy in painting history, he matured as an artist at a very young age, producing technically disciplined and sophisticated, meticulously executed gongbi landscapes at merely 14 or 15. His life, however, was tragic. Beset by a failed career, family disharmony, and other difficulties, he was egoistic and regarded as mentally unstable, and ultimately suffered a premature death. Su Renshan’s paintings often picture bizarre realms, which in fact reflect the anguished painter’s arduous struggles for self-expression and catharsis. 　　

In the 40 or so years of Su Renshan’s short life, the age of 30 was a threshold of his artistic development. Thereafter he gradually eschewed landscapes for simple paintings of figures and plants. The current piece is the last monument of his early phase. This huge painting is painted on a single sheet of paper measuring 3.5 meters in height, and the landscape elements are densely and complexly composed ─ an extremely difficult feat that would have been impossible if the painter were emotionally unstable. Su Renshan’s painting was deeply influenced by woodcut prints. This is especially evident in his late works, which emphasized line and structure. Another great impact on his landscape paintings was his visit to Guilin, Guangxi province at the age of 25. The unique topography there must have infused his artistically-inclined spirit with an inexplicable passion and vitality. The mountain forms and the passages of near plain drawing seen here are the result of the fusion of these two influences.