Landscape

Ink applied in washes, dots, and rugged strokes defines a mountain vista seen as if from a shoreline path. A boat in quiet waters suggests tranquility amid grandeur. The scale of the distant mountains is heightened by the suggestion of mist—mostly areas of reserved paper. Using techniques he credited to China’s seventeenth-century masters, Huang Junbi developed a style in which he could portray actual landscapes, as opposed to the imagined landscapes or tradition-sanctioned compositions of pre-twentieth-century painting. After his move to Taiwan in 1949, he traveled the world and found an appreciative audience for his paintings of landmarks, especially waterfalls. His depictions of Victoria Falls in Africa and Iquacu Falls in South America won him international acclaim. This work, however, presents an ideal rather than a real landscape, in a classical composition that might please a connoisseur of historical Chinese painting. As the dedication indicates, it is “for the leisurely amusement of the honorable Chu-tsing and his wife, Yaowen.”