Rain View

Although Gu Haoqing was more noted during his life as a poet than as a painter, e still excelled in the so-called "Three Accomplishments"—poetry, calligraphy, and painting. He belonged to a circle of poets known as the "Seven Sons of Kingling." The group convened at the house of Wang Yu, to whom this painting is dedicated. After viewing a painting by the famed Southern Song dynasty painter Gao Kegong in the Wang family collection, Gu was inspired to paint this hanging scroll. The inscription reads:

Gao Fangshan’s [Gao Kegong’s] Bring Clouds in Early Spring which I saw in the collection of the family estate of Mr. Wang.

The style of Gao Kegong was itself based in large part on models from the Northern Song period, in particular the landscape paintings of Mi Fu (1051—1107). For this reason, to later painters, Gao Kegong was viewed as an important transmitter of the so-called Mi style of painting. As seen in this painting, the Mi style is distinguished for its use of thick, wet ink, repeated triangular forms, and a clear distinction between mountains and clouds.