"Literary Garden" Scroll Painting

Exquisitely painted with delicate line work and a subdued color palette, this Chinese scroll painting is a Qing-dynasty reproduction of a famous Tang-dynasty scroll. The painting depicts a meeting of the minds - a literary gathering hosted by the poet Wang Changling (713-41) in a traditional scholars' garden. Characters to the left attribute the original work to Chinese official and painter Han Huang (723-787); however, contemporary scholars suspect the painting was actually by Zhou Wenju (937-75), a prominent court painter known for his "tremulous brush stroke." The fluttering lines capture the irregularities of nature and the graceful movement of drapery, accentuated by soft shading and light washes of color.