Cover art · river

River and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day

Dong Qichang (Chinese, 1555–1636), c. 1624–27.

River and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day
River and Mountains on a Clear Autumn Day — Cleveland Museum of Art

Using it on a cover

The print file prints up to 11.3 x 1.6 in at 300 ppi — fine for smaller trims or inset artwork, but too small to fill a 6 x 9 in cover at 300 ppi. Wider than a 6 x 9 cover: crop about 91% of the width, or use it as a wraparound across back and spine.

About the work

Dong Qichang had a tremendous impact on the artistic practices and historiography of later generations; his works and writings shaped literati aesthetics. Here, Dong places an abstract landscape composition diagonally across the picture plane, configured to recall earlier masters and simultaneously express his own personal style. Dong’s inscription claims, Huang Gongwang’s Autumn Day, looks like this. I truly regret the master has not seen my work . In fact, Dong Qichang may have had Dong Yuan’s Xiao and Xiang Rivers in mind, a work he owned and considered a key work in Chinese art history.

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Sources & data