Landscape and Calligraphy from the Album of Three Perfections

In the inscription that fills the top of this album leaf, Jiang Shijie describes a painting by Huang Gongwang (1269–1354) that he had seen forty years before, citing it as the inspiration for his landscape. Jiang is commonly thought to be a follower of Ni Zan (1301–1374); his reference to Huang Gongwang, another leading master of the literati painting tradition, reminds us that Qing dynasty artists drew on a variety of past styles.