Artist:Xie Zhiliu (Chinese, 1910–1997)
Date:Datable to 1937
Culture:China
Medium:Drawing mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on tracing paper
Dimensions:Overall: 43 7/8 x 24 3/4 in. (111.5 x 62.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Sarah Shay, 2005
Accession Number:2005.411.81
Rights and Reproduction:Estate of Xie Zhiliu
This tracing (the bottom portion of which is now missing) reveals how Xie allowed himself some creative license when copying a painting by Chen Hongshou (1599–1652. In tracing the original, Xie paid greatest attention to the outlines of the lotus petals and leaves; he rendered the contours of the rock in a much more cursory manner. This enabled him to use his brush more freely to describe the rock's form and texture, adhering to neither the model nor his tracing while still preserving Chen's original composition. Xie imitated the inscription in the same way: he followed the general forms of the characters without tracing them precisely. In a further departure from the original, Xie used shading in the finished copy to give his rocks greater substance and to emphasize the main rock's central perforation.
According to Xie's inscription on the finished version, he copied Chen's painting while he was staying in Nanjing in the spring of 1937.