Spring outing

The brushwork and composition of this painting are rather close to the style of the fourteenth-century artists Huang Gongwang (1269 - 1354) and Ni Zan (1301 - 1374). In the first section of this scroll, Shen Zhou combined the styles of Ni and Huang. He employed the long hemp–fibre texture strokes of Huang Gongwang to paint the rocks and hills and adopted Ni Zan's dots using dark ink. Ni Zan rarely painted figure in his landscapes. But in the middle section of this scroll, Shen Zhou has maintained some of the features of the Wu School, putting in several huts along with people living in them. This reflects the literati tastes of the mid-Ming period. The creek in front of the house leads our view towards the large area of water in the distance. Shen Zhou employed a horizontal composition to achieve Ni Zan's image of a boundless river. At the end of the scroll, the style of Ni Zan is most clearly seen in the sparsely scattered bare trees and the rocks painted with "folded belt texture strokes". This long scroll fully indicates how the style of Shen Zhou reflects the impact of the Yuan masters.