Scholar-recluse in blue-green landscape 1633

Chen Hongshou's "Scholar-recluse in blue-green landscape" (1633) depicts a solitary figure standing in a verdant landscape. The painting is rendered in the "blue-green" style, a technique popular in Chinese landscape painting that emphasizes the cool tones of the mountains and water. The scholar-recluse is a common motif in Chinese art, symbolizing the ideal of a life of contemplation and retreat from the world. The painting's elongated format is typical of hanging scrolls, a traditional format in Chinese painting. This painting is currently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.