The signature "Cheng-po" in the lower right and the inscription "34" suggest that this untitled painting was made by Chen Cheng-po in 1934. The lake and mountain scenery are reminiscent of two of Chen's oil paintings, namely the 1929 "Tai Lake Villas" and the 1931 "Wuli Lake." We can therefore assume that the landscapes depicted in Chen's paintings are around Tai Lake in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Located to the southwest of Wuxi, Wuli Lake is shaped like a bottle gourd and is an inland lake that extends from Tai Lake. Legends speak of the statesman Fan Li and the beautiful Hsi Shih rowing on the lake during the Spring and Autumn Period, and subsequent generations called Wuli Lake "Li Lake" in memory of Fan Li.

Chen, whose father had been a scholar in the Qing imperial civil service, was born in 1895 and received an education in Chinese literature and the traditional arts during his formative years. In 1913 at the age of 18, he began receiving instruction from the Japanese watercolor painter Kinichiro Ishikawa, which gave him his initial exposure to Western art. He gained admission to the normal division of Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1924. Although he encountered modernity via his contemporary Japanese education, his cultural roots and lifestyle were inherited from traditional Chinese culture. Taiwanese intellectuals in the early 20th century retained a yearning for China, and Chen visited Shanghai and Hangzhou for the first time in 1928. Afterwards, he entered works in the Taiwan Fine Arts Exhibition and other art exhibitions depicting southern Chinese scenery. For instance, many of his paintings from this period feature the Qiantang River, Suzhou, Mt. Putuo, West Lake, and Shanghai. His 1928 "Early Spring" and 1931 "Spring Scenery at West Lake," both of which portray the scenery around West Lake, were finalists at Japan's Imperial Exhibition.

After graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1929, Chen moved to Shanghai at the invitation of Chinese painter Wang Qiyuan in order to further his career as a professional artist. There, Chen taught at the Xinhua College of Art, a private school, while concurrently teaching at Changming College of Art and the Yiyuan Painting Academy. Not long after arriving in Shanghai, he was invited to serve as a reviewer for the "1st National Fine Art Exhibition." His oils "Stream," portraying West Lake scenery, and "Suzhou," portraying a Suzhou scene, were both entered in this exhibition, "Stream" was exhibited at the 1931 Chicago Exposition as a representative work of China. It is clear that Chen Cheng-po was already infatuated with the scenery of southern China.

After five years of teaching and painting in Shanghai, the outsider Chen Cheng-po had carved out a niche for himself in the Shanghai painting community. His work was inspired by that of the Yuan Dynasty painter Ni Yunlin (1306-1374) and the Qing Dynasty painter Bada Shanren (Chu Ta, 1624/1626-1705), and combined the expressive lines of Chinese painting with Western realistic styling. His oil paintings from around 1930 incorporate age-old Eastern notions of refined taste. When the January 28 Incident broke out in 1932 between Chinese and Japanese forces, Chen first sent his family to Taiwan, and himself returned to Taiwan in 1933 after observing the situation for another year.

Chen did not forget the southern Chinese landscape after his return to Taiwan. Relying on sketches or memory, during 1934 he painted such appealing works as "Spring Scenery at West Lake," "Distant View of West Lake," and "Boating on West Lake." The current oil painting "Tai Lake" was made under similar circumstances. "Tai Lake" depicts the landscape in the Tai Lake basin, and its composition resembles those of the aforementioned "Tai Lake Villas" and "Wuli Lake." The shore and hills in "Tai Lake" are in accord with the traditional "zig-zag" principle of composition, and the painting as a whole is uncluttered, powerful, and full of bold, rough-hewn expressiveness. The luxuriant trees are portrayed using exaggerated circular strokes, and the brushwork is evocative free-flowing strokes made with a Chinese writing brush. As a result, the painting contains a vibrant sense of energy and movement.

"Tai Lake" is also characterized by a palpable post-impressionist style. The hillsides have clearly-defined colors and are rich in vitality. The branches of the trees in the near scenery are sketched in dark green, and the thick oils highlights nature's rich color scale - the lake waters below provide an interesting reflection of the bright blue sky, and the work as a whole displays the artist's enthusiastic and hearty personality. The painting thus encapsulates the beauty of southern China's lake country during the 1930s.