Sheng Maoye 盛茂燁 (Chinese, active 17th century)
盛茂燁（念庵)〈勝景人物圖〉

Figural landscape

Ink and colours on paper, mounted, framed and glazed

Inscribed with a poem and signed, with a seal of the artist

Inscriptions on the reverse of the frame

Accompanied by letter from Dr. Roderick Whitfield

勝景人物圖 設色紙本 鏡框

款識： 題詩一首，款識並鈐盛茂燁印。

背簽： 鏡框背面附題識。

附帶文件： 附羅德里克·韋陀博士（Dr. Roderick Whitfield）信函一封。

(Quantity:1)

Dimensions: 27cm x 28cm, the frame 43.6cm x 46cm

Collection of Lee Tai Hao, Bangkok, gifted to;

G. E. Graham, thence by descent to;

British private collection, London

來源：
曼谷李泰浩（Lee Tai Hao）珍藏，後贈予；
G. E. 葛拉漢（G. E. Graham）珍藏，此後家族傳承至；
倫敦私人珍藏

A native of Suzhou in Jiangsu province, Sheng Maoye was also known as Nian'an (念庵) and an accomplished professional landscape painter active during the closing decades of the Ming dynasty. Although biographical details remain scarce, surviving dated works indicate that he flourished between 1607 and 1637, working within the sophisticated artistic environment of late Ming in Suzhou, where the traditions of the Wu School remained highly influential. His paintings demonstrate a thorough understanding of earlier Song and Yuan landscape painting masters, particularly Guo Xi, Li Tang and Huang Gongwang, whose compositions he frequently emulated through the established practice of fang (painting "after" an earlier master).

Sheng Maoye specialised in lyrical ink landscapes distinguished by their restrained palette, subtle brushwork. Veils of mist, secluded pavilions and distant mountain vistas recur throughout his oeuvre, conveying the poetic ideal of reclusion that appealed to the educated elite of late Ming dynasty. Many of his surviving paintings are inspired by Tang dynasty poetry, in which landscape functions as a visual expression of literary sentiment rather than a record of a specific locality. His refined treatment of weather, light and spatial recession places him among the most accomplished professional painters of seventeenth-century Suzhou and anticipates the atmospheric monochrome landscapes favoured by painters of the early Qing period.

Examples of Sheng Maoye's work are preserved in several important public collections, attesting to his significance within the late Ming landscape tradition. Notable examples include Landscapes after Tang-dynasty Poems, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 69.242.1–.6; Mountain Landscape, dated 1636, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, acc. no. EAX.1303; Lonely Retreat Overlooking a Misty Valley, dated 1630, Cleveland Museum of Art, accession no. 1961.88; Evening View of Lake Shi, British Museum, accession no. 1979,0129,0.5.1; a landscape work in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, object no. 40-37.

盛茂燁，號念庵，蘇州府（今屬江蘇）人，為明末吳門著名畫家。其生平事蹟史料罕載，然觀其傳世題跋紀年作品，可知其主要活動於萬曆三十五年（1607）至崇禎十年（1637）年間。盛氏深植於晚明蘇州繁華昌盛之藝壇文風，深受吳門畫派影響。其作遠溯宋元諸家，尤得郭熙、李唐、黃公望之髓，多以「仿」古法入畫，融會貫通，出藍勝藍。

盛氏尤擅水墨抒情山水，用墨淡雅，筆致凝練。其構圖常以遠山如黛、煙雲繚繞、幽亭隱現為特色，極具晚明文人雅士追求「隱逸」之詩意。其創作多取材自唐人詩意，以山水形勝寄托文人情思，蓋非單純寫生實景。盛氏於氣候演變、光影層次及空間遠近之處理造詣極深，實乃十七世紀蘇州地區成就卓著之名宿，亦為清初水墨大氣氛圍山水之先驅。

盛茂燁傳世佳作罕見，多獲國內外知名公立博物館所珍藏，證其於晚明山水畫史之要地位。

主要公立機構典藏記錄包括紐約大都會藝術博物館：《仿唐人詩意山水冊》（館藏編號：69.242.1–.6）；牛津大學阿什莫林博物館：《山水圖》，崇禎九年（1636）作（館藏編號：EAX.1303）；克利夫蘭藝術博物館：《煙谷幽居圖》，崇禎三年（1630）作（館藏編號：1961.88）；大英博物館：《石湖夕照圖》（館藏編號：1979,0129,0.5.1）；納爾遜-阿特金斯藝術博物館：《山水圖》（館藏編號：40-37）。