Sheng Mao"s career as a successful professional painter frequently contrasted with that of his reclusive neighbor Wu Zhen (1280–1354). This painting is important because it shows that Sheng was aware of Wu"s style and adopted it for his own use. Recalling Wu Zhen"s depictions of hermit-fishermen, Sheng Mao shows his angler dressed in the elegant robes of a scholar. Two early Ming artists, Wang Fu and Lin Yong, have expanded upon the theme of the hermit-fisherman in appreciative poems added at the top of the painting.