A traditional Chinese handscroll painting is made specifically to be viewed in a particular moment: while held in a person’s hands.

1. BEAUTY YOU CAN HOLD IN YOUR HAND
- CHINESE LANDSCAPE SCROLLS

2. ◦ An oil painting may hang on a wall, always ready
to draw an observer’s gaze from across the room.
However, a traditional Chinese handscroll painting
is made specifically to be viewed in a particular
moment: while held in a person’s hands.
◦ It is fashioned to be appreciated like a story or a
film. Not all at first glance, but as it is unrolled
from right to left, part by part and with the
viewer’s left hand, until large sections can be
appreciated at once as the right hand rolls up the
portions already seen. When not being viewed,
the handscroll lies rolled together and is secured
on its right side with fastening silk cords and
toggles, which are often made of ivory or jade.

3. ◦ A handscroll is made from a single long, horizontal
sheet of paper with a wooden roller fixed to the left
edge. Layers of paper, and often of richly patterned
silk, serve as backing for the central images contained
in the artistic calligraphy or landscape paintings on
display. And the brocaded silk panels often
incorporated into the beginning of a scroll serve as a
gateway, demarcating the viewer’s first steps into the
world of the scroll’s storytelling.
◦ A sense of anticipation, ritual, and revelation
accompany the process of viewing a handscroll
painting. When not being viewed, a rolled-up
handscroll offers a sense of mystery as well. Unrolling
a handscroll time after time often yields new surprises
as previously-unnoticed details jump into view at a
second or third look.

4. An Ancient,
Intimate Art Form
◦ Since ancient times, the handscroll has served as a
chosen artistic form in Chinese culture. Scholars typically
date the art of the handscroll to well before the time of
the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). Because the
handscroll’s images are backed with paper and kept
rolled when not in use, the format offers a high degree
of resilience to environmental damage. Its portability is
one reason for its continuing popularity.
◦ The intimacy of the handscroll format makes a close
union of word and image possible. Typically, a handscroll
painting will be preceded or followed by a poem in
calligraphy by the artist or a famous poet, or calligraphic
characters may be incorporated directly into an image.
A section called a colophon is often also part of a
handscroll, featuring comments on the work by the
artist, a friend, another artist, or a critic, from the same
or even a later generation.

5. An Ancient,
Intimate Art Form
◦ Famous examples of the art of handscroll
painting include the Dunhuang Cave Buddhist
writings. Found along the Silk Road in the Gobi
Desert, they date from the 8th to 9th century CE.
During the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE), the
handscroll form served as a focal point in
outdoor artists’ salons, where poets and painters
spontaneously created artistic works preserved
on handscrolls.
◦ The numerous Chinese handscroll landscape
painters who flourished from the 18th to the 20th
centuries brought the art to a high point of
sophistication. Here are just four of the best-
known among them:

6. Shitao
◦ Shitao (c. 1642 - 1707), one of the most well-known and
original of all Chinese landscape painters, lived during
the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. When invaders
from Manchuria toppled the Ming dynasty in 1644,
Shitao, a member of the Ming royal family, narrowly
escaped disaster due to his status as a Buddhist monk.
In 1693, he converted to the Daoist religious tradition.
◦ Known for magnificently detailed works such as the
calligraphic painting A Man with a Horse in the
Mountain, Shitao forged a revolutionary style that did
away with traditionalist ideas of beauty and
appropriateness of technique. Whether we look at his
images of peach blossoms, riverbanks, a fisherman at
work, or a mountain landscape, we are always looking at
the work of a true individualist.

7. Shitao
◦ Rather than focusing on imitations of old
masters—who he did respect—he
worked to learn from older techniques
while expanding the artistic vocabulary
of his time. Shitao made use of
impressionist-like brushstrokes and
washes, built on the notion of subjectivity
of perspective, and deliberately
incorporated white space into his works
in order to create a sense of distance.
The calligraphy and poems he often
centers in his paintings show the same
irreverence for tradition and the artistic
canon.

8. Tang Yifen
◦ Qing dynasty painter Tang Yifen (c. 1778 - 1853) was
especially known for his landscapes and for his
depictions of gardens and ink plums. He additionally
achieved renown as a calligrapher.
◦ Born in Jiangsu province north of Shanghai, he took
several artistic nicknames, including that of
“Yusheng, Qing-ying monk.” Tang’s style followed
17th century orthodox traditions, rather than that of
his contemporaries of the mid-19th century.
◦ Tang’s sensitive handscroll works are particularly
noted for his untitled images of mountaintops and
of plum trees in blossom. His most often-
reproduced paintings include Leisure Travel in the
Water Village and the outsized masterwork The
Garden of Delight.

9. Li Keran
◦ Li Keran (1907 - 1989), considered by experts to be
among the masters of modern Chinese landscape
painting, drew inspiration from classical Chinese
themes. He also emphasized the mastery of
sketching and drawing as a precursor to painting in
oils.
◦ Li also blended ancient calligraphic styles with
techniques, such as chiaroscuro, developed by
European masters. Li’s richly ornate, highly personal
style found expression in detailed landscape works in
sketch form, oils, and watercolor.
◦ His work often depicted shaded mountains
shrouded in clouds or towering over villages and
rivers plied by single-sailed boats. The “Li School,”
formed by his disciples in the 1980s, continued his
profound impact on the Chinese art world.

10. Lu Yanshao
◦ Lu Yanshao (1909 - 1993) is another landscape handscroll painter
who earned wide acclaim in the latter part of the 20th century. Also
grounded in classical artistic techniques, he refined his early love
for painting, seal carving, and calligraphy.
◦ Lu’s close study of generations-old models helped him to perfect a
style centered on elegance and precision of execution. He
immersed himself in the study of nature and the classics of Chinese
literature, believing this knowledge part of the core of a painter’s
art.
◦ Yet Lu was also a pioneer unafraid to experiment. He broke with
tradition by applying dark ink directly to paper without first
creating an outline, placing brushstroke atop brushstroke to build a
bold signature look.
◦ Many of Lu’s best-known landscapes draw on the poetry of the
Tang dynasty poet Du Fu (712 - 770 CE). In the late 1950s and early
1960s, Lu created an especially fine 100 folios for his series Album
of Poetic Settings from Du Fu’s Lines.