Landscape Album in Various Styles: The Stream of Wuling

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

At age 68, Zha Shibiao painted this album with seasonal landscapes in various styles. Painted in fresh colors and wet strokes, all depict typical scenes of Jiangnan. The mention of Wuling in the inscription signals the “Peach Blossom Spring,” but Zha Shibiao purposefully left out all the accepted iconography for that story: a lone fisherman, cave entrance, and village of hermits. Instead, two men in separate boats are engaged in conversation. Could they be talking about the way to the Peach Blossom Spring, or could one of them be that fisherman blessed by his unintended visit but no longer able to find his way back again? Around them unfolds a lyrical landscape, with willows along the shores, an empty pavilion, a wide-open lake surface, and endless distant hills. Zha Shibiao, a native of Anhui province, moved to Yangzhou later in his career, like so many of his fellow countrymen.