The Last Three Months of the Year 1662 - 1722

Curator: There’s something enchanting about the layered scenes in "The Last Three Months of the Year". This genre painting, using colored pencil and watercolor print, gives us little glimpses into another world, don’t you think? Ding Liangxian, the artist, captured a sense of miniature drama within a larger, lyrical landscape dating somewhere around 1662-1722. What catches your eye? Editor: Well, it's striking how flat the perspective feels, almost dreamlike. And the color palette! Muted blues and peach tones. I immediately feel this deep sense of harmony, but also slight remove like witnessing scenes from a distant past. It’s intriguing how figures engage across multiple levels – almost like different acts unfolding in a play, but with that wonderful Eastern serene detachment. It brings the season to mind, definitely. Curator: Exactly! I read these images as vignettes into privileged life and ritual— almost theatrical in their arrangement, particularly around dwellings. If we read art as cultural documentation, works like these reveal a desire for narrative, a need to portray customs. Even how power and hierarchy visibly unfold— a delicate observation. Editor: I wonder about the audience too. Given that miniature aspect you touched on, were these prints meant to be collected in sketchbooks, like personal visual diaries reflecting their owners’ social world? Ukiyo-e hints that perhaps...Were the intended views consumers from a specific class, given how labor and leisure play a central role to life? I find the print compelling to investigate for answers like that! Curator: A lot is not fully known which grants so much creative breadth for viewing the pieces. Editor: Agreed! I think its openness lets you discover something new in this snapshot every time. A moment of contemplation perhaps with tea! Curator: Precisely— a journey into history viewed with a unique modern sensitivity and viewpoint. Editor: Right. Who knew art of past, is now our future to unfold in our viewings.