Ramblers over a Winding Stream

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

This album leaf is one of few surviving paintings by Luo Zichuan. During the Yuan dynasty, the Luo family of painters in Jiangxi province, in Southern China, had a network of patrons extending their reputation all the way to the capital city of Beijing. The small, rounded figures crossing the bridge on the right are gentlemen enjoying a ramble, rather than ascetics or travelers. The composition is dominated in the center foreground by “crab-claw” trees with knotty trunks and twisting branches. Their robust forms show Luo’s connection to the earlier master, Guo Xi (about 1020–about 1090).

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