Dimensions: 34 × 26.5 cm
Artist: Yu Shaosong (China, 1882–1949)
Inscriptions: Preface by Yu Shaosong; Colophons by Huang Jie and Lin Zhijun

Known by the studio names Yueyuan and Hanke, Yu Shaosong was a leading painter and calligrapher from Longyou, Zhejiang, descended from seven generations of artists. Immersed in this family tradition and inspired by travels to China’s great mountains and rivers, he developed a literati style noted for elegant, unrestrained brushwork. Renowned for ink landscapes and bamboo paintings, he was also a master of zhangcao cursive calligraphy and an avid collector. In 1931 one of his bamboo works shown in Japan was purchased by the mother of Emperor Hirohito, who formally conveyed her admiration to the Chinese government.

The album bears a preface by Yu and closing inscriptions by two of his close contemporaries: Huang Jie (1873–1935), celebrated poet and scholar of classical Chinese learning, and Lin Zhijun (1878–1961), noted poet, philosopher, and legal scholar. Together, their inscriptions and Yu’s sixteen landscape leaves create a refined meeting of poetry, calligraphy, and painting—an embodiment of early twentieth-century Chinese literati culture.