Album of Landscapes

On a cold moonlit night in early spring, a man parks his boat at the river’s edge, leaves his servant boy behind to watch the boat, and strolls up a mountain path toward an isolated pavilion. Wearing long, flowing, light blue robes, the man appears to pause just before a grove of gnarled plum trees covered with tiny white blossoms. Through the canopy of delicate flowers, he gazes up toward the dramatic mountain peak far above him. Further up, four Chinese characters read, “dark fragrance lingers, ” a description of the plum blossoms’ scent hanging in the night air. The line is from an ancient Chinese poem by Lin Hejing (967–1028), who was beloved throughout East Asia and known for his adoration of plum blossoms.