Description

At the lower edge of the image, a traveler with a pole over his shoulder and a round bundle crosses a low wooden footbridge over a shallow, stony riverbed. Above him, a rocky outcrop rises on the left, crowned by dark-inked pines, while on the right a broad waterfall falls over a pale cliff face in the distance.

The entire middle ground is filled with mist, out of which only individual treetops emerge as soft patches. This deliberate withdrawal of the middle ground makes foreground and mountain backdrop appear as two separate pictorial layers and creates a sense of expanse that clearly exceeds the narrow vertical format. The ink work shifts assuredly between dense, almost black passages and washed-out gray tones.

At the lower right are the signature and a red seal; a further seal appears at the upper right. The tiny figure amid the overwhelming landscape is a fixed motif of the sansuiga tradition and refers to the position of man within nature. Executed as a screen print on silk, this hanging scroll is a classic, calmly composed piece.