Currently not on view
The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu (Youyu qiu he 幼輿丘壑),
ca. 1287
Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫, 1254–1322
Chinese
Yuan dynasty, 1271–1368
y1984-13
Zhao Mengfu promoted a “return to the spirit of antiquity” (guyi), and here he evoked an early mode of landscape painting, the blue-green style. The flatness of forms, blue and green colors, evenly spaced trees, and wiry thin brush lines are among the many archaic allusions. The scroll’s subject is the scholar-official Xie Youyu (280–322), who once said that although he was uncomfortable in the confines of court, when surrounded by hills and streams, he had no equal. In this composition, he is aptly portrayed seated in a landscape of his own imagination. The underlying theme of reclusion at court was particularly poignant for Zhao, a descendant of the Song royal family who transferred his loyalty to serve under the Mongol conquerors of the Yuan dynasty.
More About This Object
Information
Title
The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu (Youyu qiu he 幼輿丘壑)
Dates
ca. 1287
Maker
Medium
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Painting: 27.4 x 117.0 cm. (10 13/16 x 46 1/16 in.)
Colophon (right): 27.2 x 177.6 cm. (10 11/16 x 69 15/16 in.)
Colophon (center): 27.2 x 107.2 cm. (10 11/16 x 42 3/16 in.)
Colophon (left): 27.2 x 76.8 cm. (10 11/16 x 30 1/4 in.)
Mount: h. 28.2 cm. (11 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Edward L. Elliott Family Collection. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
y1984-13
Place Made
Asia, China
Signatures
unsigned
Inscription
Extensive colophons: see "Images of the Mind: selections from Edward L. Elliott family and John B. Elliott collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University"
Marks/Labels/Seals
Two columns of characters in ink on label adhered to rolled scroll
Culture
Period
Type
Subject
Edward L. Elliott Family Collection;
1984- present, purchased by Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
- Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty (1279–1358). Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968., p. 90, fig. 17
- Li, Chu-tsing. "Stages of Development in Yüan Landscape Painting." National Palace Museum Bulletin 4, no. 2 (May–June 1969): 1–10., fig. 1
- Barnhart, Richard. "Marriage of the Lord of the River: A Lost Landscape by Tung Yüan." Artibus Asiae. Supplementum 27 (1970): 3-60., fig. 24
-
Suzuki, Kei, and Terakazu Akiyama. Chugoku bijutsu, vol. 1. Tokyo: Kodan-sha, 1973.
, p. 21 -
Brinker, Helmut. "Ch'an Portraits in a Landscape." Archives of Asian Art 27 (1973): 8-29.
- Cahill, James. Hills beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1976., pls. 10, 11
- Fong, Wen. "Rivers and Mountains after Snow (Chiang-Shan Hsüeh-Chi) Attributed to Wang Wei (A.D. 699-759)." Archives of Asian Art 30 (1976–1977): 6-33., p. 16, fig. 7
-
Ishikawa, Jun, et al., eds. Bunjinga suihen, vol. 3. Tokyo: Chuokoron-sha, 1979.
, pl. 64 - Suzuki, Kei, comp. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku, vol. 1 of Amerika-Kanada hen. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982., p. 130–31, pl. A17–056
- Barnhart, Richard M. Along the Border of Heaven: Sung and Yüan Paintings from the C.C. Wang Family Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983., p. 112, fig. 49, p. 114–15, fig. 50
- Wen C. Fong, Images of the mind: selections from the Edward L. Elliott family and John B. Elliott collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1984)., cat. no. 6
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1984," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 44, no. 1 (1985): p. 24-52., pp. 48–49 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 263 (illus.)
- Zhejiang daxue Zhongguo gudai shuhua yanjiu zhong xin 浙江大學中國古代書畫研究中心. Yuan hua quan ji. 5, 4 (元畫全集 第五卷第四冊). Hangzhou: Zhejiang daxue chuban she 浙江大學出版社, 2012–onwards., no. 148
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 315
-
Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliot Family and John B. Elliot Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University Sunday, April 15, 1984 - Sunday, June 17, 1984
-
An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)
-
From Xanadu to Dadu: The World of Khubilai Khan September 20, 2010 - January 2, 2011
