Yang Shanshen, also known as Yang Shen-sum, followed Gao Jianfu (1879-1951) and is known as one of the artists in the second generation of the Lingnan School. His technique for painting trees and rocks was to use the split tip of a worn soft goat’s hairbrush, thus leaving blank areas within ink strokes. The inscription here on the theme of crows is modified from a poem by Xie Zhen, a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) poet. It reads ‘Vast wild fields reach the shore, the Zhang river flows eastwards by the city wall. Kitchen smoke spreads through the whole city at dusk; in the warm air a crowd of crows flies by.’
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 September-1 December 1996, Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Vainker, Shelagh (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1996), no. 108 on p. 80, illus. p. 81 fig. 108
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