
Album of Landscapes and Calligraphy for Liu Songfu
Xugu · Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1895/96
- Medium
- Album of 25 leaves; ink and light color on paper
- Original size
- Each leaf: 30.5 × 36.3 cm (12 × 14 1/4 in.)
- Currently held
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Movement
- Impressionism
This late album by Xugu distils a lifetime of wandering and contemplation into twenty-five intimate leaves, where spare ink washes and quiet calligraphy share the page as equals. Xugu spent much of his adult life as a Buddhist monk, moving between temples and the bustling art markets of Shanghai, and that double existence shaped everything he painted. His brushwork carries an unmistakable trembling quality — lines that seem to breathe rather than simply describe — achieved through a dry-brush technique that breaks traditional tonal certainty into something more provisional and alive. Created for a friend in 1895 and 1896, just months before the artist's death, the album reads as both a gift and a reckoning, the landscapes stripped to their essential mood rather than their surface detail. Xugu is known to have kept squirrels, goldfish, and other small creatures in his studio, studying their movement — a habit that fed the restless energy visible even in his still landscapes. A hand-painted oil reproduction translates this contemplative work into a new medium while honouring its restraint, preserving the delicate tonal range and the unhurried quality of line that make the original so quietly compelling.
Hand-painted oil reproduction
Painted in real oil on stretched canvas by master copyists. Delivered unframed — ready to frame at home.
Choose a size
In Xugu's style.
Send us a photograph of your family, pet, or home — we'll paint it as a custom oil on stretched canvas in any style you like. From £220.

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Calligraphy Accompanying Xugu's Painting
Xugu · Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1897

Calligraphy Accompanying Xugu's Painting
Xugu · Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1897

Album of Landscapes and Calligraphy for Liu Songfu
Xugu · Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1895/96


