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Additional Views

Sep 28, 2015

Apr 27, 2004

Sep 28, 2015

Plum Blossoms

梅花

probably 1739

Wang Shishen 汪士慎

(Chinese, 1686–1759)

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Painting: 144.4 x 75.7 cm (56 7/8 x 29 13/16 in.); Overall: 238 x 89.1 cm (93 11/16 x 35 1/16 in.)

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.366

Location

not on view

Description

A native of Anhui province, Wang Shishen was a professional painter who specialized in plum blossoms. He moved to Yangzhou in the late 1720s to seek patrons. Here, the daring composition of a flowering plum branch is balanced through the addition of four poems. Wang’s poems evoke nostalgia for the forgotten Six Dynasties period and the glorious Sui dynasty, during which the Grand Canal was built while Yangzhou was the southern capital of the empire. Other inscriptions in the upper part of the painting allude to the fact that Wang had developed blindness in one eye, probably at the time he conceived this painting.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist's Poem 1. Looking for plum blossoms with friends, enjoying the fresh clear day,/ My black shoes and cotton socks feel light./ With fine groves in front of the ancient temple door,/ I walk to and fro, as in a painting.

Inscription

3 colophons, 3 additional inscriptions, and 23 additional seals: 1 inscription, dated 1739, and 2 seals of Mao Yin-k'uei (17th–18th c.); 1 colophon and 3 seals of Lu K'uei-hsün (17th–18th c.); 1 colophon and 3 seals of Chu Chin (1686–1769); 1 colophon and 4 seals of Yü Pi-k'uei (17th–18th c.); 1 inscription and 2 seals of Yao Shih-yü (1695–1749); 1 inscription and 3 seals of ? Shu-teh; 1 seal of Shen Wu (dates unknown); 1 seal of Lou Ts'un (19th c.); 2 seals of Cheng Qi 程琦 (1911–1988); 2 unidentified.

Inscription

Artist's Poem 2. One clear chime breaks the silence in the Mountains,/ All the heroes of the Six Dynasties, after a thousand years, are forgotten./ Enjoy the idle days under a Buddhist window,/ Plum blossoms monopolize the east wind with their branches.

Inscription

Artist's Poem 3. Next to the little stone bridge is a path leading west,/ Wherever you walk, your staff will touch some dike of the Sui Dynasty./ Tourists love only the Ch'i-ling temple,/ So sea-gulls take to startled flight and horses neigh.

Inscription

Artist's Poem 4. After ten years I revisited the I-su An,/ The old plums are no longer on the southeast side of the garden./ I pass a peaceful night, though unable to offer fragrant flowers,/ As bright moonlight cheerlessly falls upon the Buddhist shrine.

Inscription

Artist's inscription, signature, and 3 seals: Four poems composed on our way from the Iron Buddha Temple to the I-su An Retreat at P'ing-shan, while looking for plum blossoms with friends. Ch'ao-lin, Wang Shih-shen painted [this]. [2 seals] Wang Shih-sheng; Chin-jen fu. [seal, lower right corner] Ch'ao-lin.

Provenance

?–1985

The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1985–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Ōsaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan [大阪市立美術館 = Osaka Municipal Museum]. Yōshū Hakkai [揚州八怪 = The Eight masters of Yangzhou]. Ōsaka: publisher not identified, 1969. p. 38

Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 267, pp. 365–366

Exhibition history

Yōshū Hakkai [揚州八怪 = The Eight masters of Yangzhou]. Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka, Japan (April 26-May 25, 1969).

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-July 16, 2003).

A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).

When Salt was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 12-November 5, 2023).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Plum Blossoms|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.366|author=Wang Shishen|year=probably 1739|access-date=10 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Plum Blossoms

Plum Blossoms

梅花

Wang Shishen 汪士慎

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