Biography

Dancing and Singing (Peasants Returning from Work)

Ma Yuan was born in Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) into a family of painters. His great-grandfather Ma Fen served as painter in attendance at the Northern Song court in early 12th century, and both his grandfather Ma Xingzu and his father Ma Shirong held the same position at the Southern Song court in Hangzhou. At some point after 1189, Ma Yuan received the same position under Emperor Guangzong. He evidently enjoyed a high reputation at the court and was a favorite of Emperor Ningzong (who wrote several poems inspired by Ma Yuan's paintings); but nothing more is known about his life. He died in 1225. His son, Ma Lin, who rose to the rank of painter-in-waiting, was the last painter in the family.

Works

Although a very versatile painter, Ma is known today primarily for his landscape scrolls. His technique, like that of many contemporaries, was at first inspired by Li Tang. Eventually Ma developed a personal style, with marked decorative elements ("pine trees ... strong as if they were made of iron wire", as described in a contemporary source). A characteristic feature of many paintings is the so-called "one-corner" composition, in which the actual subjects of the painting are pushed to a corner or a side, leaving the other part of the painting more or less empty.

Aside from landscapes, Ma's surviving oeuvre includes many different types of works. These include a number of delicate flower paintings (National Palace Museum, Taipei), a series of paintings of water and mountains (Palace Museum, Beijing), some paintings of Zen masters (two kept in Tenryū-ji, Kyoto), etc. Many album leaves survive that can attributed to Ma Yuan, but his authorship is disputed for all but a few of them, since Ma's popularity in his day led to numerous painters imitating his style. Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring (National Palace Museum) is among the album leaves with secure attribution, as are two leaves in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and one in Mr. and Mrs. Dean Perry Collection, Cleveland, Ohio. A group of hand scrolls survives as well, including one of the most important works, The Four Sages of Shangshan, in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio. In the history of science and technology in China, Ma Yuan is remembered as being the first to depict a fishing reel in artwork (i.e. in his painting Angler on a Wintry Lake).

作品

在馬遠傳世的作品中，較為著名的有：

• 〈山徑春行圖〉

:絹本設色，縱27.4cm，橫43.1cm，約成於1102－1224年間，現藏台北國立故宮博物院。

• 〈雪灘雙鷺圖〉

:絹本設色，現藏台北國立故宮博物院。

• 〈華燈侍宴圖〉

:絹本設色，縱125.6cm，橫46.7cm，約成於1198－1201年間，現藏台北國立故宮博物院。

• 〈水圖〉

:全圖分為十二個部分，每部縱26.8cm，橫41.6cm。分別命名為波蹙金風、洞庭風細、層波疊浪、寒塘清淺、長江萬頃、黃河逆流、秋水回波、雲生滄海、湖光瀲灩、雲舒浪卷、曉日烘山、細浪漂漂，生動而精彩地表現了不同類型的水。現藏于北京故宮博物院。

• 〈梅石溪鳧圖〉

:絹本設色，縱26.7cm，橫28.6cm，現藏于北京故宮博物院。

• 〈西園雅集圖〉

:藏于美國納爾遜藝術博物館

延伸閱讀

• 板倉聖哲：〈南宋宮廷畫家的歷史認識―以馬遠為中心 〉。