Collection Appreciation - Gu Cheng's "Landscape Map" fan page

In the Qing Dynasty, literati painting occupied the mainstream position in the painting world. Under the influence of the creative ideas of literati painting, the Qing Dynasty painting world presented a scene of many genres. Gu Cheng is one of the representative painters of literati painting. Gu Cheng, also spelled Yanmou, was a native of Changzhou (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu). He is good at painting landscapes and even writing plum blossoms.

The fan page of Gu Cheng's Landscape Map (see above) now in the Guangxi Museum is a silk ink pen, 24.3 cm in length and 26 cm in width. The painter inscribed himself on the right side of the picture: "A water is blue, the peaks are towering, and the sky is cold." Brother Bo Ying Ren genus. Lequan Gu cheng". Plutonium "Uncle Jun" white text seal. The inscription is a calligraphy, the rules are precise and varied, the structure is tight and vivid, the pen is deep, and the position is appropriate. The prevalence of the Qing Dynasty's imitation of antiquity led many painters to pursue only one-sided brush and ink techniques. However, from the perspective of the style of the painting, the painter did not imitate the fine style of the "Four Kings of the Early Qing Dynasty", and the brushwork treatment appeared to be more casual, with the characteristics of small freehand.

The fan is a unique form of calligraphy and painting that flourished during the Two Song Dynasties. The creation of landscape painting fans has high requirements for the composition layout, and it needs to present the effect of seeing small in large. Gu Cheng's "Landscape Map" shows a secluded place under the peaks. The picture is full of water and sky, and the mountains are endless. The mountains are lush with trees and layered with mountains. Under the mountains, there are several grass halls on the shore of the mountain pass, arranged in pairs of threes and threes, which seem to be random, but in fact they are carefully arranged. The reeds at the water's edge move with the wind, and the wooden boat moored on the shore, presenting the realm of "wild ferry unmanned boat self-crossing" (Wei Yingwu's "Chuzhou Xijian" sentence). In the distance, a winding path can be seen around the towering front peak to reach the waterfront residence. In the painting frame, you can look up at the top of the mountain between the mountain passes, and you can see the distant view near the mountain. Although the scale of this work is small, it shows a strong sense of habitability and swimming.

The composition of this "Landscape Map" fan page is influenced by Ma Yuan and Xia Gui of the Southern Song Dynasty, and does not adopt the layout form of large mountains and rivers, but skillfully uses the fan area to focus on showing the strange corner of the mountains and rivers. The picture is sparse and dense, and the layers are more distinct, showing a full range of interest. The mountain structure takes the oblique trend, and the pen and ink line obliquely and gently. The brush at the junction of the distant mountains and the edge of the picture is subtle and hazy, and it seems that the off-painting scene is about to come out, which enhances the sense of extension of the picture space. The painter uses a large area of blank space to represent the water surface, so that the mountains and water form a state of left reality and right virtuality. This is a well-run location. The painter places the village in the middle of the picture, and the layout treatment of the mountains and water cleverly avoids the central axis, presenting a visual effect of abundance and fiction. Judging from the brush and ink of landscapes and trees and stones, the painter first outlined the contours of the mountains mixed with earth and stone with light ink centers, and then used a variety of methods to enrich the details of the mountains. The front mountain adopts a short cloak of hemp, showing the rounded and thick texture of the mountain, and uses light ink to express the relationship between yin and yang and to the back, although there are not many dyeing layers, but the use of ink is very good. The water surface only uses light ink to gently outline the water streaks at the shore, forming a weather with a slight wind and water. The leaves in the painting use the dot leaf method of mixed dots of size to show the scene of "towering peaks". The trees in front of the hill on the left side of the picture are jagged and dense, and the ink color is thick before and then light, and the changes are rich. In particular, the trees depicted in light ink boldly use the superposition method, and the tree shape is directly formed with a flanking line pen. Through the trees, you can faintly see the tree-lined path, as if you can feel the cool breeze blowing.

This "Landscape Map" fan page also has more obvious shortcomings. The changes in the shape of the rocks in the distant mountains are too sluggish and lack changes. In particular, the mountain stone volume in the distant mountain near the water is too large, and there is a tendency to tilt backwards, which seems to be out of balance. In addition, this tree method is too arbitrary, the ink color level of the far view and the close-up view is less changed, the ink color of the distant mountain trees is too heavy, and the sense of space is not strong. Although the trees in the lower left corner of the close-up view give way to each other, the three trees have neat roots and lack of high and low variations.

Gu Cheng's "Landscape Map" fan page has the characteristics of using scenery as a metaphor. In the picture, the water is clean and bright, the mountains are powerful and breathtaking, and the trees are lush and vibrant. The painter writes the elegance in his chest with a brush that does not seek similarity, fully showing the artistic conception of the secluded scene and the idle literati feelings. Although the picture is small, it contains large mountains and rivers, and has a small freehand style, reflecting the painter's full and leisurely attitude towards life. The painter highlights the far-reaching artistic conception through limited brushwork, and matches the ingenious composition and layout with the unique circular structure of the fan. He takes the oblique posture of the mountain to reach the meaning of complementarity of the circle, creating an elegant artistic beauty. Throughout this work, the square inch of the width can see the appearance of the peaks, bringing people endless reverie.

——Excerpt from China Painting and Calligraphy