Remnant Shadows of the Six Dynasties, from the album Flowers, Rocks, Bamboo, and Landscapes

Gāo Fènghàn was born in Jiaozhou, Shandong Province. He developed an interest in poetry, painting, and seal-carving in his early youth, when he also began to collect old seals and inkstones. From 1729 to 1734, he served as an assistant magistrate in Shexian, Anhui Province, before a new assignment took him to Taizhou, where he stayed until 1737, when illness caused him to lose both his government position and the use of his right hand. He then retreated into a Buddhist monastery in Yangzhou, relearning how to write and paint with his left hand. He is sometimes grouped with Lǐ Shàn, seen nearby, among the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou” 揚州八怪.

This album was painted in 1733 while Gāo was still in Anhui. The leaves depict a wide variety of subjects, from landscapes and garden rocks to floral studies and bamboo. They demonstrate a broad range of techniques, from refined outline and color images executed with a brush, to spontaneous, impressionistic images painted with the artist’s fingers. Many of the leaves are further enhanced by elegant calligraphic inscriptions explaining the paintings’ content and styles.

INSCRIPTION: REMNANT SHADOWS OF THE SIX DYNASTIES
六朝留影
癸丑圖
松石久入民居，今為吳中翰家園亭；竟從諠雜裏，坊市得林邱；且喜主人好，能容野客遊；高垣浮翠鬣，曲徑引蒼頭；矮紙斜欄外，親摹入畫收。
鳳翰
印：「鳳」「翰」
Remnant Shadows of the Six Dynasties [220–589]
Pictured in the year guǐchǒu [1733]
[This] pine and rock have long been left among commoners’ homes, but have now become [a part of] Secretary Wú’s garden. Rather unexpectedly, out of the midst of ostensible noise and bustle, these trees and hills have been found amid the market place. How delighted I am that the owner [of the garden] could kindly allow wanderers to stroll around this place. Over the high wall emerge the fuzzy green pine needles; the winding path leads the white-haired. Standing across the balustrade and using my small piece of paper, I copy this into my painting.
Fènghàn
Seal: Fèng Hàn