Collect
House in the Shade
Ink painting
Size 46.1cm × 54.2 cm
Price Not Set | Contact us to inquire about artwork status and collection availability
Certificate
M2025CBP000111PA
Artist
Chao Er Tai
Creation Year
1974
Condition Status
Well
Supplier
POST WINGS
Introduction
The work features a tall tree as the main subject, with the trunk occupying almost the entire foreground. The brushstrokes interweave, creating a strong vertical rhythm. Behind the tree, two red-tiled houses are faintly visible, deliberately compressed into a corner of the canvas, their scale reduced to the point of being almost secondary.
In this piece, Zhao Erdai has inverted the traditional relationship of subject and object in landscape painting: human dwellings are no longer the focal point but instead are overshadowed and enveloped by the presence of nature. The shadow of the tree acts like a curtain, while the houses symbolize memories; they do not interact but are mutually dependent.
This is not a nostalgic portrayal of rural life but rather a self-reflection from a late-life perspective—people in the world are like houses under a tree, brief and quiet, merely borrowing a moment of shade.
In this piece, Zhao Erdai has inverted the traditional relationship of subject and object in landscape painting: human dwellings are no longer the focal point but instead are overshadowed and enveloped by the presence of nature. The shadow of the tree acts like a curtain, while the houses symbolize memories; they do not interact but are mutually dependent.
This is not a nostalgic portrayal of rural life but rather a self-reflection from a late-life perspective—people in the world are like houses under a tree, brief and quiet, merely borrowing a moment of shade.
Video Intro
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