Introduction to the work:
Chen Shaomei(1909-1954), naming himself Yunzhang and styling himself Shenghu, with his ancestral home in Hengshan, Hunan Province, was born and brought up in Beijing. He learned calligraphy and poetry under the instruction of his father. Later he became the best student of Jincheng. He became a member of the Hu She Club and headed the Tianjin Branch of the club later. He is good at landscape and portrait paintings. He did well in paintings about the maids of honour and had a great influence on the Tianjin Painters. As he moved back to Beijing he did landscape painting like The Xiaogu Mountein and portrait paintings reflecting the new life. He died soon in Beijing.

Chen's landscape paintings are full of strength and focused on the natural shape and the lofty spirit. The present painting is themed on the scene of crossing the river in the fall rain. The inscription goes as follows: "Feeling as if the wind and rain came from my fingers and wrists" The rocks are presented by the axe skills to create the rainy effect and it also shows the painter's preferrence of the Ma Yuan Style in the South Song Dynasty. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the painting of the South Song Dynasty, instead of the North Song Dynasty, has been greatly canonized. Chen follows the steps of his teacher and tries to make breakthroughs in painting based on his study of the traditional paintings.