Ramblers over a Winding Stream

This album leaf is one of few surviving paintings by Luo Zichuan. During the Yuan dynasty, the Luo family of painters in Jiangxi province, in Southern China, had a network of patrons extending their reputation all the way to the capital city of Beijing. The small, rounded figures crossing the bridge on the right are gentlemen enjoying a ramble, rather than ascetics or travelers. The composition is dominated in the center foreground by “crab-claw” trees with knotty trunks and twisting branches. Their robust forms show Luo’s connection to the earlier master, Guo Xi (about 1020–about 1090).