After the Rain, Summer

There are people crossing the bridge in the rain. Ahead of them, you can see a modest house surrounded by a dense thicket of trees. Beyond the fog that seems to encompass the house, a mountain with a waterfall is soaring. In subdued colors, the artist portrays a view of a humid mountain on a summer day.

The mountain and trees in this painting are depicted in pointillism with watery sumi (India ink). This is a technique called Mi-fa shan-shui, which originates in Chinese literati artists of the Northern Song dynasty. It was often employed in Chinese literati painting of the Ming and Qing dynasties to depict humid mountainscapes, too. While following the tradition of literati painting, Soun compiles a view from the village to the mountain within a zigzag composition that leads the viewer’s eyes further and further into the depths. It is a fine painting characteristic of Soun, who was good at representing perspective with the air. The inscription in the upper left mentions that it was painted when Soun was seventy-three years old.