
Collection Online as of December 10, 2023
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Painting only: 33.4 x 97.3 cm (13 1/8 x 38 5/16 in.); height: 35 cm (13 3/4 in.)
Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1997.95
003 Special Exhibition Hall
The landscape in deep green tones offers a view into a secluded mountain valley, populated by ancient figures surrounded by deer and cranes, all under high pine trees. A red-robed immortal in the air steers his crane toward the paradise land.
This idyllic scene was presumably created amid the tumultuous transition from the Yuan to the Ming dynasty. Chen from Suzhou supported major rebel leaders, first Zhang Shicheng (1321–1367) with his base in Suzhou and then his rival Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing, after the latter had established the Ming dynasty. Chen was executed in 1371.