Landscapes after old masters

Wang Hui

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This album contains paintings by Wang Hui and four of his students. In 1692, Wang was organizing a major imperial commission to commemorate the Kangxi emperor’s 1689 Southern inspection tour, a visit to the empire’s south. As the workshop master, Wang had to find worthy assistants, and this collaborative piece seems to have played a role in the selection, as the four students who worked on this album would go on to assist with the Southern Inspection Tour handscrolls. Each leaf is painted in the manner of a different old master; together, the album expresses Wang Hui’s and his students’ mastery of the landscape painting tradition.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art