南宋 傳夏珪 澤畔疾風圖 團扇|Windswept lakeshore

Art Historical Context

This exquisite fan painting, attributed to the renowned Southern Song master Xia Gui, captures a dynamic lakeshore scene buffeted by strong winds. Created in the 13th century during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the work exemplifies the intimate scale and poetic sensibility of the period’s landscape tradition. Xia Gui, a leading figure of the Ma-Xia school, was celebrated for his abbreviated brushwork and atmospheric effects that evoke the vastness of nature within a compact format. Painted in ink on silk and originally designed as a round fan before being mounted as an album leaf, the piece measures just over ten inches across. This portable medium was especially popular at the Southern Song court, where scholars and officials carried such fans as both practical objects and refined works of art. The windswept composition likely employs bold, expressive strokes to convey movement in trees and water, reflecting Xia Gui’s signature “one-corner” approach that leaves much of the surface open to suggest mist and distance. As a rare surviving example of Southern Song fan painting, this work highlights the era’s deep appreciation for nature’s fleeting moods. Its presence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection underscores its enduring value as a window into China’s classical landscape tradition.