High Mountains and Magnificent Peaks

The horizontal format of this album allows the viewer physically to unfold an intricate vista that begins at the right with gentle hills and mist, builds toward a crescendo of towering peaks and scraggy trees, and concludes quietly with a flock of birds retreating into the distance. The musical rhythm of the composition is accented by repeating trees in positive and negative tones and distant shadows beyond the tall peaks. The otherworldly beauty of the scene recalls the Daoist lands of the immortals depicted by Wu Bin (active 1591–1643), in which fantasy and reality coalesce in a strange yet alluringly harmonic world. The close-up view of the mountains in this painting reveals the dry brushwork and “scorched ink” that have become Xia Yifu’s characteristic techniques. Despite the artist’s limited formal academic training in painting and calligraphy, his works display an air of elegance that reflects a classic aesthetic vision. In the words of Chu-tsing Li, “his rocks and mountains become symbols of human integrity and moral dignity [and] his trees and plants are depicted with such freshness and ingenuity that they seem like newly created objects.”