Landscape in the Style of Fan Kuan 范寬 (act. ca. 990-1030),

undated; 13th–14th centuries

One of the leading masters of Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) landscape painting, Fan Kuan created images that celebrate majestic mountains, rocks, and streams. Such monumental landscapes continued to be popular in subsequent periods, and later artists attempted to emulate Fan Kuan’s style. The Yuan dynasty artist responsible for this example reinterpreted Fan’s characteristic miniature texture dots as an unvarying surface pattern in shades of gray. The lengthy inscription above the painting describes the image’s “lofty and steep and sharp peaks”
and “leaves [that] tarry in green, while some have drifted to red.”