“First we look at the hills in the painting,
Then we look at the painting in the hills.”

— Li Yu (author)

As quoted in Lin Yutang's My Country and My People (1935), pp. 99 and 248
Compare:
We're made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we've passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see;
And so they are better, painted,—better to us,
Which is the same thing. Art was given for that;
God uses us to help each other so,
Lending our minds out.
Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi" (1855)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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“First we look at the hills in the painting,
Then we look at the painting in the hills.”