@@Wang Meng was a native of Chekiang Province and
the grandson of the renowned painter-calligrapher Chao Meng-fu.
Along with Ni Tsan, Wu Chen, and Huang Kung-wang, he was
one of the Four Great Masters of the Yuan.
@@Depicted here are fields at the mouth of
a valley shown below soaring peaks. Wang Meng's texture
strokes follow after the 10th century tradition of Tung
Yuan and Chu-jan, but his style lacks the conservative stability
of these early landscape masters. Wang, rather, has experimented
with and transformed the Northern Sung monumental landscape
by piling and compressing forms into a narrow, vertical
scroll. Compared to his later works, however, the "ox-hair"
texture strokes are not as writhing and the spatial structure
not as boldly derived from nature. This nonetheless is an
important early work by Wang done sometime between the age
of 40 and 50.
