Picture scroll of Cheng Zhengkui’s recumbent trip to the mountains and rivers

[Cheng Zhengcait’s Sleeping on the River and Mountain]

The Sleeping on the River and Mountain “volume, painted by Cheng Zhengcait in the Qing Dynasty, paper version, color setting, 23.8 cm vertically and 210 cm horizontally
The term “recumbent travel” comes from Zong Bing, a painter in the Liusong period of the Southern Dynasty (420-479). He loved to travel all his life, but later retired because of illness. So he drew pictures of the places he visited and hung them indoors for viewing, calling himself “recumbent to travel”. In 1642, at the age of 39, Cheng Zhengkui decided to create the volume of “Sleeping in the Mountains”. To his death, he painted as many as 500 volumes, which concentrated the essence of his life’s landscape paintings. This volume is the 435 of them, which depicts the scenery of natural mountains and rivers. The painter intercepted the middle of the mountain and described it, creating a unique narrow and long perspective. The figure was placed on the mountainside to walk, overlooking the river, looking up at the sky, and looking down at the stream from top to bottom. The scenery moves with each step, vivid and realistic. The brushwork is simple and elegant, and the color is elegant. At that time, Cheng Zhengcain was a painter with new ideas in the painting world under the influence of ancient style.