Pines, Stream and A Hermit

Wu Hufan(1894-1968) was the leading traditionalist in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s and a master of the elegant brushwork of the literati landscape tradition. The grandson of the prominent Suzhou scholar-official, collector, and connoisseur Wu Dacheng, Wu was familiar from an early age with masterpieces of classical painting. Indeed, he became one of Shanghai's most important collectors, an interest that provided a constant source of nourishment for his own painting.

Wu Hufan and his wife Pan Jingshu took the studio name Meiying shuwu, which may be translated "Library in the Shade of Plum Blossoms." This painting, which he kept in his own collection, is an imaginary rendering of such a place, and bears inscriptions by both husband and wife.