本幅所仿郭熙原作〈山莊高逸圖〉今藏臺北故宮博物院，題「河陽郭熙寫」，近世學者認爲實出於明代宣德間宮廷畫家李在，乃郭熙傳派。陳少梅早年仿古從郭熙入手，深諳其筆法造境。此畫作崇巒峻嶺，林木蔭翳，樓閣錯落佈列，飛瀑高懸，下綴行旅渡者，得北方山水之丘壑雄奇、結構精嚴，然未亦步亦趨忠實對臨原作，佈局大致作鏡像處理，排列更緊凑，愈顯工謹整飭；原作人聲喧囂之酒館改作尋常宅院，人蹤杳然，突出深山幽謐空濛之意境。郭熙標志性蟹爪枯樹代之以枝葉蓊鬱，山石多採小斧劈、短披痲皴，設色秀潤，左側院落一樹繁花盛開，凴窗可見淡藍挂簾，於雄奇巨嶂中流露恬靜蘊藉氣息，見參融南宗文人筆墨之成效，已立自我面貌，洵屬盛年細筆山水之代表作。

This work is modelled after attributed to Guo Xi’s Mountain Hermitage of a Lofty Scholar (Shanzhuang gaoyi tu), now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The original painting is inscribed with ‘Painted by Heyang [Guo Xi]’, but recent scholarship now holds that the piece was painted by Li Zai, a court painter during the Xuande era (1426-1435) of the Ming dynasty who worked in the style of Guo Xi. In his youth, Chen Shaomei began studying ancient painting from the work of Guo Xi, becoming well-versed in the ways in which Guo created new realms with his brushwork. The present painting depicts buildings and towers scattered among lofty mountain ranges, shady woods, and precipitous waterfalls, as travellers cross below. The work has the magnificent mountains and concise structure of northern landscapes. However, Chen does not slavishly imitate Guo’s painting; the composition is generally a mirror image of the original, but with a more compact and orderly placement of the elements. The boisterous tavern in the original is replaced with an ordinary house without human figures, highlighting the tranquillity and emptiness of the deep mountains. Furthermore, Chen has replaced Guo’s symbolic withered trees in crab-claw shapes with lush branches and leaves, and he has depicted the mountains and stones with ‘axe-cut’ and short ‘hemp-fibre’ texture strokes and elegantly applied colour. There is a tree in full bloom in the courtyard on the left side of the painting. Pale blue curtains are just visible through the window, suggesting a tranquil and cultured world at the base of an imposing cliff. Chen has fused influences and effects from the Southern School of literati painting into his own style, creating a prime masterpiece of fine-brush (xibi) landscape painting.