Clearing After Snow / Chang Ku-nien
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 2006/1.110
- Title
- Clearing After Snow
- Artist
- Chang Ku-nien
- Artist Nationality
- Chinese
- Artist Life Dates
- 1906 - 1987
- Medium and Support
- hanging scroll, ink on paper
- Object Creation Date
- 1981
- Object Creation Place
- Asia (continent)
- Taiwan (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- Asia (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- Taiwan (nation)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Dr. Cheng-Yang and Mrs. Shirley Chang
- Dimensions
- 151.8 cm x 82.4 cm (59 3/4 in. x 32 7/16 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Painting
- Primary Object Type
- ink painting
- Secondary Object Classification
- Painting
- Secondary Object Type
- landscape
- Physical Description
- In this scene mountains and a pavillion are covered by snow and dormant trees bear no leaves. Calligraphic text is in the upper right corner.
- Subject Matter
- Chang creates a bitter wintry scene, evoking a desolate atmosphere. However, the snowy pine scene in this painting, although still intended to follow traditional techniques of painting snow, depicts a more vigorous facet of snow scenery. Underneath heavy snows, the intensive pine needles and dramatic twisting trunks seem to still grow lividly. The durability of pine trees in wintry weather makes the theme of snowy pines a welcoming and auspicious painting subject.
- Chang Ku-nien’s inscription on this painting restates/refers to the old masters’ traditional teaching that it is the artist’s goal to capture the “idea” of snow through expressive brushwork. Here Chang renders it not through pigments but by leaving the paper blank and surrounding it with dark ink grading and washing techniques to further emphasize its whiteness. Snow scenes were a favorite subject for Chang. Some of his depictions emulate the Song (960–1279) painters in creating bitter wintry scenes in which mountains are blanketed and dormant trees bear no leaves, resulting in a desolate atmosphere. In this painting, however, a more vigorous mood is evoked, one that suggests the life beneath the heavy snow; the focus on the durability of pine trees in wintry weather makes them an auspicious subject for a painting.
- Secondary Keywords
- associated concepts
- buildings and the land
- coating (material)
- coating by form
- descriptors
- earth sciences concepts
- evergreens
- landscapes (environments)
- materials
- materials by function
- natural landscapes
- people and culture
- physical sciences concepts
- plants
- precipitation
- scientific concepts
- settlements and landscapes
- trees
- trees by leaf life
- vegetation and vegetation components
- vegetation components
- weather and related phenomena
- weather-related phenomena
- woody plants
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2238 x 4083
- File Size
- 1 MB
- Record
- 2006/1.110
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.110/2006_1_110.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
Cite this Item
View the Help Guide for more information.
- Full citation
-
"Clearing After Snow; Chang Ku-nien." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-2006-sl-1.110/2006_1_110.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 24, 2024.
