Finger Painting 1684

"Finger Painting" is a 1684 ink and wash landscape painting by Gao Qipei, a prominent Chinese artist of the Qing Dynasty. The piece, now housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, depicts a distant mountain range reflected on a lake, with a rocky outcropping and a small village nestled at its base. Several boats traverse the placid water, providing scale and emphasizing the tranquility of the scene. The painting exemplifies the "literati painting" genre, which prioritized a delicate, calligraphic brushwork and a focus on natural beauty, reflecting the artist's personal taste and intellectual pursuits.