This small oval ink painting displays the landscape subject matter and "one corner" compositional device associated with Hsia Kuei (active 1180-1224) and other artists of the Southern Sung painting academy. This school of professional painters maintained their popularity with the court and Hang-chou aristocracy into the early Ming period (15th century).

A series of structures linked by a long, covered walkway are shown nestled into pine covered mountain slopes overlooking a mist shrouded valley. The vision is of a harmonious, inviting, and controlled environment. Replacing the immeasurable vastness of earlier Northern Sung ink landscape painting is a somewhat more limited and restrained view of nature reflecting the shift toward the poetic, intimate, and more impressionistic vision of the Southern Sung academy. Small works such as this, typically used as fan or album paintings, were intended for intimate, private viewing. Kept in libraries for personal enjoyment, they were never intended for public display as were the larger hanging scrolls.