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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

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu