Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
This one of the famous paintings In Chinese history has highly long shape and this painting has influenced on later ages. Characteristic in his painting makes viewers to confuse as they feel reality. In painting, there are similar geographical features. For example, similar shape of landscape appears repeatedly such as mountains shape on the enormous river and the shape of the coastlines. For these reasons, a viewer would be able to feel sitting on opposite sides of a hill.
In this sense, Huang Gongwang had a gift for making his art look very realistic On the other hand, if looking closely, each part of the painting has very unique brushstroke method. For instance, the mountains located on the left side and the right side of painting were painted by using light paint and not detailed comparing to the other mountains. In other words, the brushstroke method applied in the middle of this painting is drier, detailed and non-washed by comparison with other parts of this painting.
The painter may intend for viewer to focus on the middle part of ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains’. A close look, however, detailed description such as trees and rocks especially were not made by using one-touch brush strokes. These things which require a lot of works were not made by simple stroke. In order to make cubic and lifelike effect, the painter painted darker paint on the lighter ones. This painting was very carefully designed in this sense. The overall atmosphere of this painting is very peaceful, calm and restfulness.
The reason why this masterpiece looks serene is not only peaceful scenery but also low-key human presence. As viewers can see, the painter tried to restrain to show the existence of human and he could be the focus on natural beauty. Besides, this painting was made for a friend of Huang Gongwang and took 3 years to complete all of his works. For this reason, Huang Gongwang would design this picture as if he would like to show this peaceful scene to his friend. This is probably why not showy, austere mood could be felt on the painting.
As viewers can see, there are lots of inscription on the painting. Huang inscribed ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains’ at its end. He stated that he sketched the entire composition in one sitting, then from time to time would add a little when he was in the mood. All told, it took him three years to finish the painting. All things considered, this inscription would be for his friend to let his friend know, how much he exerted himself to draw this masterpiece and how much he wanted to share of this beautiful scenery with his friend.
The style of this painting is greatly naturalistic and overall visual effect is so austere. As painter didn’t do to excess, he calmly expressed beautiful scenery without using fancy technique and exaggeration. Therefore, it wouldn’t be looked as a pleasant and engaging work. However, wouldn’t it be difficult for painter to draw a very normal painting which will be remembered as a famous masterpiece?
