Remembering Ni Zan's 'Wutong Tree and Bamboo by a Thatched Pavilion' (Yi Ni Yunlin Wu zhu caotang tu 憶倪雲林梧竹草堂圖),

1408

Ni Zan (1301–1374) was one of the most famous painters of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), renowned for sparse landscapes that often feature a simple, unoccupied pavilion. His paintings were much admired by later artists, who often copied, referenced, or reinterpreted his landscape style—as was common in both painting and calligraphy when an earlier master’s talents were esteemed. Wang Fu discusses his admiration for Ni Zan—and the inspiration he drew from the particular visual language of Ni Zan's landscapes—in the painting’s inscription:

When I was a boy I once saw . . . a painting by Master Yi Nunlin [Ni Zan], Wutong Tree and Bamboo by a Thatched Pavilion. . . . Today while on vacation with some free time, I sat at my desk with an inkstone and did this work on paper in imitation. . . . Although my work can never approach [Ni Zan’s] in resonance and untrammeled purity, it may preserve some of his compositional features.