A solitary figure sits in a boat facing an empty viewing pavilion raised on stilts above the water’s surface. This is followed by trees and bamboo that surround the entrance gate to an extensive estate, the size suggested by a structure appearing in the distance. These pictorial elements are presented within a complex landscape of rocks, cliffs, and distant peaks, all rendered with expert brushstrokes and articulated with interior texture strokes. There is little here to suggest the style of the Song master Ma Hezhi but much to relate it to the approach of such contemporary artists as Wang Hui (1632-1717).
Yang Jin, hao Xiting, was from Changshu in Jiangsu province. Born in the same neighborhood but twelve years later than Wang Hui (1632-1717), Yang assisted and collaborated with the older artist for over forty years, often supplying the figures, architecture, animals and other pictorial accoutrements to landscapes painted by Wang. Yang Chin seems in fact to have shared in the most momentous artistic events of Wang’s life. Wang Hui is known to have studied with Wang Jian (1598-1677), and Yang Jin’s earliest recorded painting is a portrait of the elder master with landscape setting provided by Wang Hui. Around the year 1690 Wang Hui was invited to Peking and given an imperial commission to paint the Nanxun tu, a pictorial record of the Kangxi emperor’s progress through the southern provinces of China. Among the ten or so disciples who assisted Wang Hui on the project was Yang Jin, who was also permitted to view and copy some of the masterworks held then in the imperial collection.
The present painting was done in 1698, early in Yang’s career, and demonstrates the technical skills and aesthetic sensibility that served him so well throughout his career.
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