Autumn Mountain in Evening Green

Ever wondered how art can mirror a treacherous journey?

Autumn Mountain in Evening Green does just that. The painting portrays a perilous path winding along a gloomy cliff, with sharp peaks looming in the distance. This rugged, northern style, akin to Jing Hao’s Image of Mount Lu, emphasizes the hardness of rock and the compactness of the landscape. A recently discovered silk painting from a 10th-century tomb reveals a similar style, suggesting that this dramatic portrayal of steep, challenging terrains was quite popular in northern China during that era.

Five Dynasties Period (907-960) Guan Tong. Silk, hanging scroll. Ink Wash Painting. Collection of the Taipei Palace Museum.

This piece is compiled from the Chinese edition of Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting by Foreign Languages Press and Yale University Press, translated by Chen Ying.