清 石濤 (朱若極) 山水圖 扇頁|Landscape

Shitao (Zhu Ruoji)

dated 1699 · Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on gold-flecked paper · Asian Art

In the inscription on this fan, Shitao sets forth his theory of painting, "the single stroke," or "the painting of oneness (yihua)": On a windy, rainy, spring day, I am happy I have no visitors; my hand is free, my mind relaxed and cleansed. The ancients called it yihua, the "single stroke": a thousand hills, ten thousand valleys, people, bamboo, trees,a single brushstroke and all is completed. On one level, yihua constitutes a very practical concept: a complete design begins and finishes with the single brushstroke. On a metaphysical level, it suggests that "myriad strokes are reunited in oneness" through the mind and hand of the artist and through the artist's spiritual communion with nature.

Artist

Shitao (Zhu Ruoji)

Date

dated 1699

Medium

Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on gold-flecked paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988