2008: Cliff and Pines, Waterfall Pending, Zhu Henian (1760-1834)

Ink on paper | H. 115,8 cm; L. 35,6 cm | Dated 1813

MC 2008-18. Donated by the Society of Friends of the Cernuschi Museum with the help of the Antoni Laurent Foundation

Zhu Henian (1760-1834), originally from Taizhou in Jiangsu, was mainly active in Beijing, where his name was associated with that of two other artists, Zhu Angzhi and Zhu Ben, who with him formed the school of the three Zhu.
Numerous paintings by Zhu Henian dedicated to eminent figures in literate circles such as Weng Fanggang, Yi Bingshou, or Ruan Yuan, explain the learned character of Zhu Henian's paintings, whose style, of classical mastery, testifies to a perfect knowledge masters of the past. Nevertheless, the inscription on the painting Cliff and pines, waterfall in suspense paradoxically testifies to its relationship with these pictorial models. Thus the colophon affixed to the work tells us that this work was created in reaction to the mediocre character of a painting representing the Tiantai Mountains, copy (Moben) which was not up to the descriptions made by the Tang poet Lu Guimeng (? - 881). Disappointed by this work seen by a collector, the painter set out to represent the tall pines according to his imagination.
The painting offered as a donation by the friends of the Cernuschi Museum can be compared to a work kept at the Tianjin Museum for its treatment with a dry brush of rock masses (ZGGDSHTM, t.10, p.226). The principle of structuring the composition around a bouquet of large trees forming a central axis is also illustrated by one of Zhu Henian's most famous paintings, the pavilion with 10000 rollers (Sichuan Provincial Museum, ZGGDSHTM, t.17, p.123).