Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains by Zhao Mengfu was completed in 1295 and is a handscroll executed in ink and color on paper. The composition presents a panoramic landscape featuring the Qiao and Hua mountains, rendered in a style that reflects both the artist’s scholarly background and his engagement with earlier painting traditions. This work is an important example from Zhao Mengfu’s mature period, created during the Yuan dynasty. The handscroll depicts a broad river landscape in autumn, with clusters of trees in varying stages of seasonal change, scattered rural dwellings, and distant blue-green mountains.

The foreground contains willows and reeds, with small boats along the banks. The composition is balanced by the use of soft washes of color and delicate brushwork, while the application of calligraphy and numerous collector seals above the landscape attests to the scroll’s later history and appreciation. Zhao Mengfu painted it for his friend, the scholar Zhou Mi, whose family came from the area around Jinan where the two mountains stand, and it is widely recognized as a masterpiece of Yuan dynasty landscape painting. The handscroll has been held in high esteem by collectors and connoisseurs, as indicated by the many seals and inscriptions.

It is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and is often cited as a key example of literati painting.