Eighteen Views of Huzhou

This album of landscape paintings depicts the famous scenic areas located in and around the city of Wuxing in southeastern China. The artist, Song Xu, was not a native of that city, but must have visited it when he accepted the commission, for he carefully depicted all eighteen views and wrote comments on each of them. These places were all known for their natural beauty, but in addition, a number were distingusihed by their links to eminent historical figures and events. Unlike other artists of his time, Song Xu favored a painting style that was technically polished and focused attention on specific, realistic details. Such an approach was well suited to projects like this one, for which the artist was in great demand.