Signed Wen Jia (1501-1583)

Description:

China, 17th/18th c.
31 x 340 cm (47 x 360 cm)
Landscape. Ink on paper, horizontal scroll format, mounted on wood panel, framed. At the end of the painting a long inscription, signed "written by Maoyuan Wen Jia in Yinbaitang." Two artist's seals: Wen Jia, Wen Xiucheng shi(?). Seven collector seals. This handscroll (shoujuan) shows a classic Chinese landscape painting in the Shanshui and literati (wenren) style. The depiction invites the viewer on an imaginary journey as the image is unrolled from right to left: the foreground shows rocks, small trees, and huts, as well as a bridge over water. In the middle ground, the scenery rises from the water to the first large mountains and hills, partially shrouded in clouds. On a brindg, a scholar carrying a Qin to visit his friends. The paiting ends in the background with a rock where three scholars are gathering at a wide river, and distant mountains shrouded in mist and fog.
From an old German private collection, acquired in Asia in the 1960s/1970s, since then in family ownership
Wen Jia, whose courtesy name was Xiucheng and paseudony was Wenshui, was a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Provice. He was the second son of the influential Ming painter Wen Zhengming and followed the style of the great masters of the Yuan dynasty. He was best known for his landscape and flower paintings - Traces of age, minimally wear and rep.