Chao Kan: Travellers along the River in the First Snow

Five Dynasties Period

Handscroll / ink and light color on silk

Handscroll : 25.9 x 376.5cm

Chao Kan (tenth century), a native of Chiang-ning (Nanking) was a talented landscape painter. He became a student of the Imperial Painting Academy under Emperor Li Yu of the kingdom of Southern T'ang, and was active as a court painter. This work, portraying the riverside area of the Chiang-nan (south of the Yangtze) region in early winter, depicts the fluttering snow in Chinese white throughout the scroll and detailed human figures that are uniquely expressive.