Mountains Viewed from a Riverbank

Ni Tsan (A.D. 1301-1374), Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1279 - 1368)
Ink on paper. Hanging scroll. 111.3 x 33.2 cm

Ni Tsan, style name Yuan-chen, sobriquet Yun-lin, was a native of Wu-hsi, Kiangsu. He came from a wealthy family and built the Ch'ing-pi-ko to house his collection of classical paintings and calligraphy. he is considered one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty.
This painting was completed in A.D. ]363 when Ni Tsan was sixty-two years old. The mountains are rendered in long, continuous hemp fiber strokes, rather than the abbreviated lines of his later works. The small trees in the middle-ground are textured with horizontal dabs in the manner of Huang Kung-wang. Ni first studied the works of Tung Yiian and was thirty-three years younger than Huang Kung-wang. Therefore, the stylistic influence of these two masters on the work of Ni Tsan was inevitable.
Whether this work was actually executed for Ni's friend Wei-yun (Ch'en Ju-yen) as the inscription states is open to question. Two characters in the inscription have been erased and the words "Wei-Yun" were written in their place.

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