Albumblad 1850 - 1900

Hui Nian created this ink on paper album leaf showing a landscape, but without a date, so we must look at the other visual clues it contains. This circular painting, or 'Albumblad', fits into a long tradition of landscape painting in China. The visual codes it employs speak to a reverence for nature but also to the human place within it. Look at the small figures walking in the middle distance. In what ways does it reflect or comment on Chinese society? Well, the format of an album leaf suggests that this would have been made for an educated member of the literati, and the subject matter here reflects the values of that group. By looking at the inscriptions on the painting, we might get a sense of where Hui Nian saw his work fitting into an artistic tradition, and the kinds of social and political values he was hoping to communicate. The careful art historian would also consider what other kinds of images were being made and circulated at the time.