Li Yin Active 18th Century

depicting a scholar, bundled up against the cold, looking out from a snow-covered rustic pavilion onto a river flowing past trees through dramatic mountains, a tiny hut perched on the edge of a high cliff in the distance, the heavy sky promising more snow, bearing an inscription which may be translated:

Snow like goose down and feathers transforms the range of mountains; My body resides in the palaces of the immortals and serried peaks of jade.  Straight ahead the Sword Gate rises up ten thousand feet: I turn: Beyond this the great phoenix appears out of the void.  After the brush manner of Li Tang, Li Yin, called Banyu, from..., bearing three seals

Chinese Paintings from the Henricksen Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University; Tyler Art Gallery, State University of New York, Oswego, 5th September 2002 - 23rd February 2003, cat. no. 5, illustrated.

slight mottleing to silk, toning, horizontal split approx. 12 inches below upper edge, moderate surface soiling
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The composition of the present work, with its strong emphasis on vertical line, together with the fluid, wet brushstrokes, contribute to a feeling of a descending sky, and the imminent fall of more snow. This sense of verticality is broken here and there by clumps of snow and ice on branches, and the white of the roofs of the rustic retreat, from under which the solidly painted figure looks out onto the snowy landscape. Quite often, solitary figures tend to be dwarfed in extensive Chinese landscapes, but here, the lone scholar seems to hold his own--his mass echoes that of the cliffs above him, bringing a greater sense of intimacy to the scene. Undoubtedly, this is also due to the confined viewpoint, where his abode spans nearly half of the width of the composition, so while the viewer is aware of the awesome scale of the landscape, they are also focused narrowly on the human aspect.