Picturing Places and Spaces

The landscape in this small painting is comprised of a sloping bank with a few trees on the left, a large rock formation in the center, and a spit of land with several trees on the right. The untouched paper at the bottom is read as water when the viewer notices part of a boat emerging from behind the central rock. A man seated at the bow seems to be pondering the beauty of the scene, much of it beyond the frame. He is not rowing or fishing, but rather his boat drifts through the calm water.

Chen Huan has used a variety of brushstrokes in this monochromatic image. Fine lines are used for the man and his boat. Larger ones describe the foliage and bark of trees along the riverbanks. Much bolder strokes create the outlines and textures of the rocks, and tiny black dots are added to suggest plants that grow along the shoreline. The tone of his ink ranges from pale grey to dark black. In this type of painting, the brushwork is meant to be appreciated as much as the familiar theme of a solitary fisherman finding solace in nature.

As is customary in Chinese painting of this period, Chen Huan added an inscription in the upper right corner, and over the last character, "Huan", he placed his seal in red. In the lower corners, the red seals of a later owner of the painting have been stamped. He specified in the inscription that this painting was made for Mr. Wen in the spring of 1596. Chen was a professional painter from Suzhou in modern Jiangsu province, and the painting could have been commissioned or created as a gift. Chen noted that he used the style of a famous artist also from the Suzhou area, Shen Zhou, who lived about a century earlier. Emulating acclaimed painters of the past was part of an artist's training, and they often added this information in inscriptions. Chen ended by stating that the image was painted for Wen's "enjoyment and comment."