Waterfalls of Lake Jingpo

Waterfalls of Lake Jingpo is the artistic culmination of Chinese ink painter Fu Baoshi’s (1904-1965) journey to Northeast China in the early-1960s. Travelling to the northern kingdom for the first time, the artist covered 4,000 miles and the entire trip lasted four months. Having lived in the south for much of his life, Fu was in awe of the magnificent northern scenery and hence captured its beauty in the form of this ink painting.
Located in the upper reaches of the Mudan River, Lake Jingpo is a tributary of the Songhua River, which is located southwest of Mudanjiang, a prefecture-level city in the Heilongjiang Province. The lake functions as a deep reservoir for the gushing stream of the Diaoshuilou Waterfall and is famously celebrated as the largest mountain lake in China. In the upper left corner of his painting, Fu depicts the exact moment, when the six-foot giant waterfall flows into the lake below. The work appears to embody the philosophical saying: “thunder, the sound of the valley”. In the foreground, trees are rendered with a combination of dry and wet ink brushstrokes, while the texture of the rugged rocks are expressed through thick ink outlines. In the upper right area of the painting, the ink application becomes lighter and emulates a drifting cloud. Overall, the spectacular composition is representative of Fu’s mastery over the traditional ink and brush.