Research Project: Landscape Comparisons

The Chinese word for landscape is shanshui (shan-shway), meaning "mountains and water." In nineteenth-century France, painters of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, like Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne, were also fascinated with painting mountains, water, and sky. Have students research one of these artists and compare their works to Shen Zhou's sixteenth-century landscape painting style. What are the best qualities of each? Why have landscapes fascinated so many artists the world over?

Group Activity: Imagined Landscapes

Nature is the favorite inspiration for Chinese artists and poets. Often the natural world they describe is not a real place but an imagined one. Have each student write about an ideal place in nature. They might imagine they are walking with friends, describing every element in detail (plants, animals, shapes, colors, smells, and sounds). Next, have students exchange papers with a partner. Each partner should read the description and then try illustrating it using colored pencils. Finally, have partners share their work, discussing how accurately the illustrator captured the author’s imagined place.