Zhao Mengfu The Magpie China Autumn Figure Analysis

The Autumn Colors on the Que and Hua Mountains is the earliest landscaping painting, with the exact year, made by Zhao Mengfu, a painter of Yuan Dynasty. This painting has a profound influence in the painting history. The reason why the essay does some researches into this outstanding painting is that the cause why the painter created this painting has the written records and the Que and Hua Mountains mentioned in the painting and the painting itself have been preserved till now. Thus, the painting is a complete case about the painter's creation process. The way of doing this research is that through the on-the-spot investigation on the Que and Hua Mountains, and references about the landscape of the Que Mountain in Yuan Dynasty, and by comparing the painting with the real scene, the changes and differences will be analyzed. Thus, the in-depth and meticulous research will be made about the entire process from the experiences when Zhao Mengfu learnt how to paint to the period of creating this painting and about his painting thoughts, painting style, and the creation of the landscape artistic conception. The modern landscaping paintings continue to keep the basic pattern that one should learn how to draw a landscaping painting and then create one painting. In the light of this, we can learn something from the ancient people' s creative experience, when creating landscaping paintings. The in-depth research can help us not only imitate ancient people' s ways of paintings, but also imitate their thoughts of creating paintings so that better paintings will come into being. This essay does some research from the cause why Zhao Mengfu created this painting and investigates the relationship between Zhao Mengfu and Zhou Mi. The conclusions about Zhao Mengfu' s painting thoughts are drawn by investigating the Que and Hua Mountains and comparing the differences between the real scene and the painting with pictures. They are experience Zhao Mengfu got by visiting mountains, ancient appeals, the clear style, the integrity of the painting capacity and the morale and the reclusive thoughts. The painting style, characteristics of this painting and its influence on Yuan Dynasty are analyzed. Some conclusions about the formation of the artistic conception of the hills and waters in the painting, the distillation from the object to the subject, and the aspects on the conception and the relaxation are drawn.