Dong Qichang Chinese Painting Print – Water Rocks

Collectors of Dong Qichang will want to look closely at this Water Rocks rendering. You’re looking at a loose-sheet huaxin print — the classical image, reproduced and unmounted.

You get mountains in the foreground, water behind it, and trees tying them together — a Chinese landscape art print with real substance. The margins hold rocks, calligraphy, and calligraphy for the careful viewer. The written lines are drawn as much as written; calligraphy was never separate from painting, and a worthy unmounted Chinese painting print. The washes graduate from mist to ink-black with a watercolorist’s control. The mountains do what mountains do in this tradition — put everything in perspective. Dong Qichang’s theories shaped literati painting for centuries; his brushwork practiced what he preached. Edges and margins are clean, giving a framer plenty to work with.

It wants a simple frame and a quiet wall. Give it both — a fine Chinese calligraphy wall art. A fine anchor for a gallery wall of Asian art.