Period: Qianlong period (1736--1796) of Qing Dynasty
Measurements: H. 147.5 cm, W.218 cm
Provenance: From the Cultural Relics Team of Henan Province

Yuan Yao, a native of Jiangdu (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu), was one of the outstanding painters for Jiehua (lit. “boundary painting”, a tool-aided painting) in Yangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. He was also talented in the genres of landscape, flower and bird.

Yuan Yao's "Peach Spring" is a hanging scroll of colored freehand brushwork of mountains and forests, with silk ground, in light bluish green color. On the upper left of the painting, is the painter's inscription "Peach Spring, on Xinwei day in Early Autumn, by Yuan Yao of Cun’shang." The picture looks meticulously painted at close range, and magnificently from a distance, and it is subtly adopted the ruled-lines that only appear in the boundary paintings to depict the specific objects, intentionally representing the “peach spring” as an ideal place for sightseeing, walking, watching, and inhabiting. It is an exquisite landscape painting with the elements of the boundary painting.