Overview

As a master painter, Yuan Jiang was active in his native province of Yangzhou in the early Qing dynasty. He learned the style of landscape painting in the tradition of the northern region of the Northern Song, which can be seen in his bold brushstrokes and expansive use of space. This painting depicts the luscious terrain around the Hall of Green Fields (Lushu Tang) and the villa, south of Luoyang, built by the mid-Tang counsel, Pei Du (763-838). Mounted on the back side of the folding screen is the statesman and literati, Ouyang Xiu's Record of the Arbor of the Drunken Old Man (Zuiwengting ji) , written in the hand of Yuan Mouzheng of Yangzhou. Although there are many large extant paintings by Yuan Jiang, only a few remain in this folding-screen format. This painting is also an important source in examining how the prosperous merchants of eighteenth-century Yangzhou decorated their interiors.