1 Ma Lin 1180 – 1256 Ma Lin (signováno)Bare Trees by the Shore

This intimate circular composition depicts a cluster of bare trees with gnarled branches rising from a low rocky outcrop at the edge of an open expanse of water, beyond which a distant horizon dissolves into mist. The painter employs the characteristic Southern Song 'one-corner' composition (yijiao goutu 一角構圖), with the principal motif pushed toward one edge of the picture surface and the remaining void answering for distant water and sky. The branches are modelled in the angular 'crab-claw' manner (xiezhao zhi 蟹爪枝) — sharply jointed strokes ending in fine sinewy tips — a signature device of Ma Yuan, his son Ma Lin, and their academy circle.

The iconographic type known as the 'cold grove picture' (hanlin tu 寒林圖) was particularly developed at the Southern Song Imperial Academy by Ma Lin, who refined his father's lyrical 'one-corner' format into still more pared-down compositions; it became one of the most widely reproduced subjects of academic landscape painting throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties.