A bearded, fierce looking man in a blue coat and carrying a three-pronged spear walks through a snow-covered mountain landscape and looks back to his small dog with a red collar. The luxurious dressing of the man and the finely-shaped dog suggest that he is not just a common hunter but a person of higher status. On his three-pronged spear he carries two white animals, perhaps hermelins. The atmospheric, authentic depiction of nature convincingly transmits the mood of a cold autumn or winter day. This represents a significant achievement of early Chinese painting that was lost in the course of history. However, the present painting may convey an impression of those early masterpieces.
Gu Deqian was court painter in Nanjing and served the art-loving Emperor Li Yu (937–978).
Gu Deqian, whose surname he shared with the great Gu Kaizhi (ca 348–409), was primarily a figure painter, whose work focused on Daoist themes. However, originals of his paintings have not survived. The present work is an attributed copy of the 18th century.