The Quietude of Winter The brushwork of Lan Meng captures a specific, fleeting stillness. Working during the mid-17th century, he found his footing in the capital city of Beijing, where his presence was felt through the delicate application of ink and color on silk. His extant works, which date from 1643 to 1671, reveal a painter deeply attuned to the subtle shifts of the natural world. He did not merely depict landscapes; he reconstructed them through a lens of memory and scholarly tradition. His technical precision was most evident in his treatment of winter. He possessed a particular spe…