2013.161: Deep Ravine, Rushing Torrent

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2013.161

People

Yu Cheng-yao 余承堯, Chinese (Yongchun, Fujian province, China 1898 - 1993 Taiwan)

Title

Deep Ravine, Rushing Torrent

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, hanging scroll

Date

probably early 1960s

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/319265

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink on paper, with artist’s inscription, signature, and seal

Dimensions

painting proper: 135.8 x 68.4 cm (53 7/16 x 26 15/16 in.)
full mounting: 211 x 85.1 cm (83 1/16 x 33 1/2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Upper right, black ink: Done by Yu Chengyao (Chinese brush-written characters followed by a red seal reading "Yu Chengyao yin")
• inscription: brush-written in upper right of painting, translates as follows: "Deep Ravine, Rushing Torrent. Gigantic rocks pile up on lofty peaks. Spring waters, green as jade, splash across dangerous paths. White clouds hover above the emerald valley. When can I return home? Done by Yu Chengyao"
• seal: artist's seal: Square red intaglio seal, following signature: "Yu Chengyao yin"

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Yu Chengyao, Taiwan, 1963, sold; to Chu-tsing Li, Lawrence, Kansas (1963-2012), gift; to his son B U.K. Li, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (2012-2013), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2013.

Footnotes:
1. Dr. Chu-tsing Li (1920-2014)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Chu-tsing Li Collection, Gift of B U.K. Li in honor of Chu-tsing Li and in memory of Yao-wen Kwang Li and Teri Ho Li

Accession Year

2013

Object Number

2013.161

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A rugged mountain rises from a deep canyon, while water rushes down channels amid the rocks. Ink brushstrokes applied densely and tightly define craggy peaks, rock faces, and trees, the last seeming to grow against all odds from openings in the canyon walls.
Yu Chengyao inscribed the painting, “Deep Ravine, Rushing Torrent. Gigantic rocks pile up on lofty peaks. Spring waters, green as jade, splash across dangerous paths. White clouds hover above the emerald valley. When can I return home?”
“Home” for Yu was mainland China. He served as a general in the Chinese army during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and then moved to Taiwan with the Nationalist government in 1949. With no formal training in the arts, he took up painting in 1954. In technique, his paintings bear little relation to the brushwork of traditional Chinese masters, but in composition they approach the monumentality of the great landscapists of the Northern Song period (960–1127).

Publication History

• Robert D. Mowry and Claudia Brown, A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), cat. 29

Exhibition History

• A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/2007 - 01/27/2008; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 06/28/2008 - 09/14/2008; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 10/11/2008 - 01/04/2009; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, 02/11/2009 - 05/24/2009
• 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/04/2023 - 06/03/2024

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