1999.224: Blossoming Plum

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1999.224

People

Cho Hŭi-ryong, Korean (1789 - 1866)

Title

Blossoming Plum

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

hanging scroll, painting

Date

mid-19th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, Korea

Period

Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910

Culture

Korean

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/188168

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Folding album leaf (from an album of sixteen leaves) mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper, with two rectangular, red, relief seals of the artist reading "Tok Hwa" and "Tae A"

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 28.1 x W. 41.1 cm (11 1/16 x 16 3/16 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: inscribed poem and artist's seals

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 the David A. Ellis Asian Art Fund

Accession Year

1999

Object Number

1999.224

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

Because it blooms in February, before donning its leaves, the Chinese flowering plum (Prunus mume) is associated with winter and is regarded as a symbol of strength in the face of adversity; in addition, its blossoms symbolize feminine beauty, and its weathered trunk, the humble scholar. These various and noble associations made the plum an appealing subject for traditional literati painters in China, Korea, and Japan. This painting clearly depicts aged plum trees; smooth new shoots spring from rugged ancient branches, so that a variety of textures challenges the endless capabilities of brush and ink. In this painting, overlays of dense black ink suggest rough bark peeling from the massive old trunks.

Although this leaf is not signed, the seals at the beginning and end of the poem indicate that it was painted by Cho Hŭi-ryong, the foremost Korean painter of ink plum blossoms during the first half of the nineteenth century. Extremely fond of plum blossoms, he is said to have painted plum trees on all the walls of his studio. The poem on this album leaf translates as:

Fabricating iron into a pen,
Snapping a twig into a hairpin,
Old moss suddenly regains its spring freshness,
[And] vitality harmoniously follows.
An aged crane wearing snow
Flies amongst steep cliffs;
Sitting cross-legged, a lofty monk
Completely empties [his mind] of mortal thoughts.
Translated by Hsueh-man Shen

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
• 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/23/2022 - 12/05/2022
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/01/2018 - 01/06/2019

Subjects and Contexts

• Collection Highlights
• Google Art Project

Verification Level