1999.223: Old Weathered Plum Tree with Spring Blossoms, in the Manner of the Chinese Painter Wu Zhen (1280-1354)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1999.223

People

Cho Hŭi-ryong, Korean (1789 - 1866)

Title

Old Weathered Plum Tree with Spring Blossoms, in the Manner of the Chinese Painter Wu Zhen (1280-1354)

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, hanging scroll

Date

mid-19th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, Korea

Period

Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910

Culture

Korean

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/188152

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Folding album leaf (from an album of sixteen leaves) mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper, with notation reading "Maedoin chak" (in Chinese, "Meidaoren zuo"), indicating that the painting is in the manner of Wu Zhen; with a square, red, relief seal of the artist redading "Yu Hyang Sŭp In"

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 28.1 x W. 41.2 cm (11 1/16 x 16 1/4 in.)
mounting, including cord and roller ends: H. 101 x W. 68 cm (39 3/4 x 26 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: artist's notation and seal

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Kang Collection, New York (1999)] sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1999.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art and David A. Ellis Asian Art Fund

Accession Year

1999

Object Number

1999.223

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This plum-blossom painting is an expressive combination of balanced contrasts: soft, rounded plum blossoms and buds delicately rest on sharp branches that burst in every direction; watery ink washes are punctuated with black dots scattered along the image.

The vertical crease that runs down the center of this plum-blossom painting indicates that it was once part of an accordion-fold album. Now mounted as a hanging scroll, the painting is believed to have originated from an album of sixteen leaves, all by the same artist. The four-character inscription at the lower right of this painting reads Mae-do-in chak (Chinese, Meidaoren zuo), which might be translated "Made by Mae-do-in" or "Made by the Plum Daoist." While it would seem an entirely appropriate phrase for Cho Hŭi-ryong, Meidaoren is in fact a hao, or sobriquet, of the renowned fourteenth-century Chinese ink plum painter Wu Zhen (1280-1354). Thus, these four characters are not a signature of Cho Hŭi-ryong; rather, they indicate that in painting this album leaf, Cho imitated the style of Wu Zhen. The rugged, expressive brushwork, however, not only marks the painting as a nineteenth-century work, but distinguishes it from paintings done in earlier centuries, which typically would have attempted a more naturalistic depiction using more delicate and descriptive brushwork.

Exhibition History

• A Decade of Collecting: Asian Acquisitions 1990-1999, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 03/11/2000 - 11/05/2000
• Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and Bamboo: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 07/06/2002 - 01/05/2003
• Re-View: S228-230 (Asian rotation: 1), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/27/2008 - 04/19/2009
• 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/23/2022 - 12/05/2022

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