Landscape

This landscape was originally mounted as a folding fan; traces of the frame remain on the paper. During the Ming dynasty, painting and writing poetry on fans became popular among scholar-artists, and the compact works of art were often exchanged as gifts between friends. Xie Shichen’s inscription at the top of this scene of two men in a lakeside pavilion indicates that he made the painting for Shaoshan, presumably a friend, in 1542. The gold-flecked paper that Xie Shichen chose was common for fans but posed a challenge to the painter because it did not absorb ink as well as plain paper.