A villa nestles beneath trees in the middle ground, encircled by rocks below and trees and mountain peaks above. The dense composition with strongly articulated landscape forms recalls works by such Yuan masters as Wu Chen (1280-1354), a model mentioned by the artist in another of his paintings (fig. 1).
Han K’uang, called Yeh-chu, was from Sung-chiang, within the present city of Shanghai in Kiangsu province. In the contemporaneous T’u- hui Pao-chien Hsu-tsuan of about 1680, Han is mentioned briefly along with three other artists as a master of landscape painting active in Sung- chiang.[1]
1. T’u-hui Pao-chien Hsu-tsuan, Hua-shih Ts’ung-shu edition, vol. 2, p. 909.
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Fig. 1. Han K’uang: ‘Pure Conversation in Riverside Pavilion,’ 1665, former Kaikodo.