This clearly executed fan painting depicts a solitary scholar fishing in the shade of a large serpentine pine tree along a river bank. The work bears the signature and seals of the artist Tzu-ang. Tzu-ang is the style name of Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322), a descendent of the first emperor of the Sung who rose to high office under Kublai Khan. The signature and seals were added later, however, out of reverence for the famous artist.

Chao was an immensely versatile and accomplished artist, calligrapher, and scholar. He developed a literati style based, in part, on the archaic blue-green landscape tradition that is vaguely referenced in the subject matter and coloration of this anonymous work.