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Draft of "Such is the Beauty of Our Rivers and Mountains"
Fu Baoshi Chinese
Not on view
In 1959, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fu Baoshi collaborated with Guan Shanyue (1921–2000) on a grand composition for the Great Hall of the People in Tian’anmen Square—Such Is the Beauty of Our Rivers and Mountains. This official commission was a milestone in Fu’s career, a symbolic affirmation of traditional-style Chinese painting that had been criticized in the new China. The painting became the country’s new cultural icon, a national symbol of the time.
This scroll is one of Fu’s preliminary drafts for the commission. It is based on Mao Zedong’s poem “Snow,” in which Mao described the magnificence of China’s rivers and mountains. Fu’s pictorial interpretation unites the four seasons and the four corners of the nation in a single composition. The sky is a light red in this draft, offering a contrast to the white snow and anticipating the red sun in the final version.
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