Paintings after Ancient Masters: Lotus and Rocks

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Lotus and Rocks

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

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Artist: Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598–1652)
Medium: Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Size: Overall: 30.2 x 26.7 cm (11 7/8 x 10 1/2 in.)
Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The twenty paintings in this double album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not found in the other albums from the latter part of his career. Chen's late works are wonderful summations of his peculiar and quirky art—archaistic, hyper-refined—but without accompanying shallowness or sentimentality.

His figures and landscapes in the late albums are miniaturized, not unlike the small Chinese gardens, or the carefully selected small table rocks or old roots used for contemplation to see the world in miniature. This loss of scale is quite deliberate and reflects the psychological situation of a depressed class like the Ming loyalist officials and scholars, deprived of their integrity and honor, and forced to lead a diminished and restricted existence.

More by Chen Hongshou

Vase of Flowers

Vase of Flowers

Chen Hongshou, 1350–1750

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Daoist and Crane in Autumn Landscape

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Daoist and Crane in Autumn Landscape

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Mr. Five Willows (Wuliu), Tao Yuanming

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Mr. Five Willows (Wuliu), Tao Yuanming

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Scholar-recluse in blue-green landscape

Scholar-recluse in blue-green landscape

Chen Hongshou, 1633

Lotuses and Rock

Lotuses and Rock

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Scholars in a Garden

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Scholars in a Garden

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Autumn Landscape

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Autumn Landscape

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Lady Xuanwen Giving Instruction on the Rites of Zhou

Lady Xuanwen Giving Instruction on the Rites of Zhou

Chen Hongshou, 1638

Paintings after Ancient Masters:Travelers in an Autumn Landscape

Paintings after Ancient Masters:Travelers in an Autumn Landscape

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Paintings after Ancient Masters: A Bird and Peach-Blossom Branch

Paintings after Ancient Masters: A Bird and Peach-Blossom Branch

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Landscape

Chen Hongshou, mid-17th century

Paintings after Ancient Masters: A Lohan [after Guanxiu]

Paintings after Ancient Masters: A Lohan [after Guanxiu]

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Visually similar

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Chrysanthemum and Rock

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Chrysanthemum and Rock

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Lotuses and Rock

Lotuses and Rock

Mandarin Ducks and Lotus

Mandarin Ducks and Lotus

Ren Bonian, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), 1892

Autumn Flowers in a Bamboo Basket

Autumn Flowers in a Bamboo Basket

Yosa Buson, 1760–1769

Early Spring Landscape

Early Spring Landscape

Shūtoku, before 1533

Spring Mountains over Warm Greenery

Spring Mountains over Warm Greenery

Dong Qichang, dated 1630

Pumpkin Vine and Horse Fly

Pumpkin Vine and Horse Fly

Katsushika Hokusai, ca. 1825-1833

Poem by Kamo no Chōmei with Underpainting of Cherry Blossoms

Poem by Kamo no Chōmei with Underpainting of Cherry Blossoms

Honami Kōetsu, 1606

Bird on Lotus

Unknown artist, 1700–1750

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Narcissus and Bare Trees

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Narcissus and Bare Trees

Chen Hongshou, 1598–1652

Kikker en kikkervisjes

Kikker en kikkervisjes

Ohara Koson, 1900 - 1930

Bathing Feet in a Mountain Landscape

Bathing Feet in a Mountain Landscape

Xie Shichen, c. 1560