Guo Xi's Intimate Landscapes and the Case of "Old Trees, Level Distance"
Author(s): Ping Foong
Source: Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 35 (2000), pp. 87-115
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Guo Xi's Intimate Landscapes and the Case of
Old Trees, Level Distance
PING FOONG
Princeton University
N THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of Art is an enig-
matic painting named Old Trees, LevelDistanceattrib-
uted to Guo Xi IE, (b. after looo, d. ca. 1o90),
who is unanimously considered to be one of the great-
est painters in the history of China (Figure 1).' The
present article attempts to elucidate the historical con-
text of this painting with textual documentation,
which consists of a group of poems written by Guo's
contemporaries about his intimate landscape hand-
scrolls. The poets found, as do we, that these small
handscrolls differed from the large-format works that
Guo, in his role as a court painter, designed to fit into
an architectural, and therefore public, context. Of
such monumental ink landscapes by Guo, only the
spectacular Early Spring in the collection of the
National Palace Museum of Taiwan survives today
(Figure 2).
As the literature suggests, the intimate landscapes
Guo Xi painted were considered new and original in his
own time. In describing this facet of Guo's production,
and in identifying Old Trees, Level Distance as a painting
? The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2000
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 35
The notes for this article begin on page 1 13.
in kind, we will begin by demonstrating the stylistic
affinities between Old Trees, Level Distance and Early
Sping, in order to establish the former as a work by Guo.
In this connection, the second section will trace the
provenance of Old Trees, Level Distance, based on an
analysis of an important seal and some of its colophons.
In order to characterize Guo's intimate landscapes and
to surmise a date for these paintings, the third, fourth,
and fifth sections will then present the evidence from
the written record of the eleventh century, namely,
poems by Guo's contemporaries. With the deeper
understanding of the historical position and the private
function of Guo's intimate landscapes provided by
these poems, a new interpretation of the subject matter
of Old Trees, Level Distance becomes possible. This inter-
pretation will be considered in the concluding sections.
OLD TREES, LEVEL DISTANCE AND EARLY SPRING:
STYLISTIC AFFINITIES
Old Trees, LevelDistance is a short handscroll executed in
ink on silk and now considerably darkened with age.
Two fishing boats appear in the still, low-tide waters of
a chilly, autumnal river at the beginning of the paint-
ing, at right. Not far from the boats, along the river-
~'''~'~'~:::~~~~~r~5~~"~, ,~ .~ .t .~
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Figure 1. Guo Xi (b. after looo, d. ca. oo90), Old Trees, LevelDistance Handscroll, ink and light color on silk, 35.9 x 104.8 cm. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift ofJohn M. CrawfordJr., in honor of Douglas Dillon, 1981 ( 1981.276)
87
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4 I..>6 A! t AR44 i j
-AX ^ ?i vf XaH
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Figure 2. Guo Xi, Early Spring. Signed and dated 1072. Hanging scroll, ink and light color on silk, 158.3 x 1o8.1 cm.
Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China (photo: courtesy Taipei National Palace
Museum)
88
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bank, are two half-withered, fernlike trees with hanging
vines (Figure 4). Almost disappearing into the light
mist is a pair of tiny, forlorn birds flying across the river
(Figure 5). Looking across a level plain delineated with
layers of carefully gradated light ink wash, the viewer
encounters a group of low-lying mountains beyond the
river's far shore (Figure 6). Traveling toward these
mountains are two woodcutters with their pack donkey,
themselves fading away into the misty mountains as
they cross the bridge toward home (Figure 5).
The gray lowlands are accented here and there with
wet, slightly darker dabs of ink, representing scrubby
brushwood on the riverbank and scattered trees along
the hilly terrain (Figure 6). If it were not for these indi-
cations of foliage, it would be hard to tell the differ-
ence between land and water, mountain and mist, solid
and ephemeral. We read these amorphous shapes both
as an atmospheric depiction of a misty autumn evening
landscape and as a suggestion of spatial recession in a
level distance view.
A distinct change occurs halfway along the hand-
scroll, where the viewer encounters large, old, withered
trees (Figure 7a). As with the first pair, the trunks curve
toward each other as if in conversation, but, in contrast
to their wan relatives by the riverbank at the beginning
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Figure 3. Detail of Figure i, Old Trees, Level Distance, Xuanhe
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Figure 4. Detail of Figure i, Old Trees, Level Distance, fishermen and small trees
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Figure 5. Detail of Figure , Old Trees, Level Distance, woodcutters and birds
Figur 5 Detai of Figr i, OldI Tre,Lee isac, odutesan id
of the scroll, these are presented forcefully. They are
outlined in jet-black ink, as is the bulbous rock in front
(Figure ga). A main motif, the two figures located at the
end of the scroll, is also sharply rendered (Figure 8).
The two old men walk slowly toward the rustic pavilion
overlooking the river. Five servant boys attend them at
their picnic: one has gone ahead to prepare the pavil-
ion, two accompany their masters, and two more help
carry boxes. One box is probably a multitiered food
carrier, and the other contains a qin (lute) for musical
entertainment. These boldly delineated motifs (Figure
i, left) contrast with the delicate, silvery forms found at
the beginning of the painting (Figure i, right).
After having so quickly reached the end of the scroll,
the viewer's eyes are drawn back along the plane of the
painting, a diagonal initiated at the left by the bridge
to the pavilion, continuing with the woodcutters' path,
and ending with the low-lying mountains (Figure 1).
An adjacent diagonal, forming another side of the
trapezoidal composition, is provided by the path sand-
wiched between the large pair of trees and the bulbous
rock. The fishermen, the woodcutters, and the smaller
pair of trees are located along the remaining two sides.
90
This method of organization not only gives the com-
position a sense of containment, but also enhances the
distance between objects in the long but narrow hand-
scroll format.
The contrast of light and dark ink in the main motifs
in the earlier and later sections of the scroll alters the
viewer's relative sense of distance from them, giving an
impression of receding distance across the lowlands.
By placing these motifs along diagonals, the artist leads
the viewer's eyes into the landscape without actually
presenting a painting organized by a unified ground
plane. This treatment is consistent with our under-
standing of how an artist of this period might approach
the problem of space and spatial recession.2
These features of Guo Xi's style in Old Trees, Level
Distance are also found in Early Spring, a hanging scroll
that is ascribed with certainty to his hand, reliably
signed, sealed, and dated by the artist to 1072 (Figure
2). At first glance, the two paintings seem to be con-
trasting works, differing in format and subject matter:
the former is a handscroll depicting the autumn sea-
son, the latter a hanging scroll of early spring. Upon
closer inspection, they have much in common in terms
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Figure 6. Detail of Figure i, Old Trees, Level Distance, distant mountains
of composition and in employment of ink and line.
Although the massive central mountain formation
in Early Spring almost moves like a living organism, as
if along a random path, the underlying composition is
lucidly planned. As in Old Trees, LevelDistance, the main
motifs are plotted along a trapezoidal framework. The
foot of the mountain, beginning at the lower left cor-
ner of the hanging scroll, demarcates one side of the
frame. Parallel to this is a wide band of glowing mist
that reaches from the center of the scroll to the upper
right, implying another edge. Leading our eyes in the
opposite direction are similar structural devices, such
as the tunnel-like recession of land in the level distance
at the left edge of the scroll, the line of leafy shrubbery
dotting the mountain ridge near its uppermost peak,
or the multitiered waterfall, which cascades along the
same axis. The alignment of the major features-the
mountain ridges, the mist, the level distance, the water-
fall-along this framework leads the viewer's eyes in a
zigzag, ascending path up the scroll. As in Old Trees,
Level Distance, this composition creates the perception
of a progressively remote landscape, without the need
to ground the forms along any single baseline.
The impression of far distance in Early Spring is also
enhanced by juxtaposing light and dark ink. Overall,
the bottom half of the mountain is heavily inked in a
roughly hewn manner. In contrast, the less distinct top
half is painted with smaller, layered, rubbed brush
strokes, done with relatively lighter ink. Following the
changes in tonality along the winding spine of the
mountain, the viewer also feels that this mass recedes
backward, in the same way that an object that is farther
away is less visible to the eye.
This careful deployment of ink is manifest in both
paintings at a local level as well. For example, clearly dif-
ferentiated tonalities of ink distinguish tree from
shrub, front from back. The large deciduous trees in
Old Trees, Level Distance are depicted with a bold, sure
brush and thick, black ink (Figure 7a). The leafy shrubs
growing underneath them are done with dark, watery,
though solid strokes, creating a soft-edged foil to hoary
trunks and spiky branches. Farther in the background
are two other trees in lighter gray ink, again one soft
and the other spiny. Such layered tree vignettes appear
in a number of places in Early Spring, for instance in the
center of the scroll (Figure 7b). Judiciously applied
91
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Figure 7a. Detail of Figure , Old Trees, Level Distance, large trees
Figure 7a. Detail of Figure i, Old Trees, Level Distance, large trees
wash, from the layers of which discrete forms and tex-
tures emerge, is evident in both paintings.
With apparent ease, the artist also utilizes tightly
controlled ink gradations to build up a sense of plastic-
ity in the rock formations of both paintings. Layers of
restless line and fluid wash fuse to form bulging rocks.
On top of the layered wash, a few selectively placed dabs
of ink call attention to the pitted texture of the rock in
Old Trees, LevelDistance (Figure ga), a technique applied
with a slightly dryer brush in Early Spring (Figure gb).
Here and there, inky outlines are added to suggest
rugged edges. In Old Trees, Level Distance, such dark
highlights give substantial definition to the cloudlike
rock. At the same time, the artist literally undercuts this
solidity by allowing the base of the rock to fade away
92
into the silk. The base of the rock in Early Springalso dis-
appears (into water), and from afar it almost seems to
float. A distinctive feature of Guo Xi's landscapes is this
delight in the contradiction presented by baseless
mountains and weightless rock.
Guo Xi employs line masterfully. Here, we might
point out three uses common to Old Trees, LevelDistance
and Early Spring. The first has already been mentioned-
the way in which line is used to transform an area of
layered wash into substantial rock. In addition, this line
sometimes defines a place behind which figures can
appear. In Old Trees, LevelDistance, the rock, edged with
a fluctuating, charcoal-black line, acts as a window
through which we glimpse two servant boys with their
loads approaching the pavilion (Figure ioa). This fea-
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Figure 7b. Detail of Figure
2, Early Spring, trees and
shrubs in mid-ground
(photo: from Guo Xi
Zaochuntu 5 Pe [
[Taipei: National Palace
Musem, 1979], p. 47)
ture appears in Early Spring (Figure 1 ob). Although the
spatial relationship between the rocky overhang and
the travelers is more ambiguous in Early Spring, the
dark line also denotes space below and behind.
A second use of line occurs in the rendering of
figures. While the relative sizes of the figures in the two
works differ, the depiction is quite similar, in demean-
or and arrangement. For instance, the hunched
figures in both paintings are comparable: in Old Trees,
Level Distance, he is curved with age (Figure 1 la); in
Early Spring, she is bent under her load (Figure 1 c).
Both seem to have the heel of the forward foot off the
ground, as if stepping out toe first. Their respective
companions turn their heads, as if to suggest they are
courteously waiting for them (Figures i lb and 1 id).
Travelers depicted in three-quarter view from the back
have V-shaped feet (Figures 1 if, 1 ih, and 1 ii) and
carry packs that are practically indistinguishable from
their bodies since they are meant to be moving away
from the audience into the distance. Guo Xi depicts
these human figures with the same quivering, round-
ed line as that found on the edges of his rocks. He
favors outlines broken into plump dashes and dots,
delineating both clothing and body, as in the uneven
sleeves of the scholars in Old Trees, Level Distance
(Figures i la and i lb) and in the jagged arms of the
fishermen in Early Spring (Figure 1 e).
A final use of line to be noted seems to be a habit
born of a nimble brush. In Early Spring, we find a num-
ber of instances where a single stroke depicts multiple
93
.~~~~~~~~~~~~Y?
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sC-A
Figure 8. Detail of Figure 1, Old Trees, Level Distance, pair of old men and pavilion
parts of the tree. In one example, the line begins as the
hollow in a tree branch, is transformed into an edge,
and ends as a flicking twig (Figure 12b). The fernlike
stump in Old Trees, LevelDistance is an abbreviated man-
ifestation of this mannerism (Figure 1 2a). Also in a
kind of shorthand is the way the taller tree next to the
stump is outlined. The same witty technique is used in
Early Spring to describe the bumpy edge of a gnarled
tree trunk (Figure 12c). In Early Spring, the brushwork
is still relatively naturalistic; in Old Trees, Level Distance,
it has been distilled into a whimsically curling outline,
executed with speed that might come from years of
repetition and practice of the same brush idiom.
This comparison of composition, ink, and line in
Old Trees, Level Distance and Early Spring has sought to
establish the similarity of the two works in these three
respects. The variations described above may be
94
accounted for by their different dates of execution. It
will be shown that Old Trees, Level Distance was painted
about a decade after Early Spring. The two paintings
were created for different purposes and at two separate
stages in Guo Xi's career at court, which lasted from
1068 to the time of his death around the logos.
A SEAL AND SOME COLOPHONS
Seals and colophons are important aids in authenticating
a painting by prov