2015.145: Landscape

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2015.145

People

Tseng Yu-ho (Zeng Youhe) 曾佑和 (曾幼和), Chinese (Beijing, China 1925 - 2017)

Title

Landscape

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, hanging scroll

Date

probably 1980s

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/319242

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on fibrous paper, with artist’s inscription, dedication, signature, and seals

Dimensions

painting proper: 56 x 43.4 cm (22 1/16 x 17 1/16 in.)
full mounting: 118.3 x 52.9 cm (46 9/16 x 20 13/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: Upper left, black ink: Youhe (Chinese brush-written characters followed by a red seal reading "Youhe changshou")
• inscription: brush-written in upper left of painting, translates as follows: "Some think bringing forth new ideas is good; others think relying on the past is good. I sing a new melody, but use the old tone. Am I neither here nor there?
  Chu-tsing, my venerable brother, asked me to imitate the old style, Youhe."
• seal: two artist's seals: 1) Square red relief seal (sideways), following signature: "Youhe changshou"
  2) Square red intaglio seal, following first seal: "Zeng Youhe yin"

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Zeng Youhe, Honolulu, probably 1980s, gift; to Chu-tsing Li, Lawrence, Kansas (1964-2012), gift; to his son B U.K. Li, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2012-2015), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2015.

Footnotes:
1. Dr. Chu-tsing Li (1920-2014)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Chu-tsing Li Collection, Gift of B U.K. Li in memory of Chu-tsing Li, Yao-wen Kwang Li, and Teri Ho Li

Accession Year

2015

Object Number

2015.145

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Three rocky land masses rise from the water, with a hint of mist surrounding the distant peak. An air of isolation, perhaps desolation, emerges from trees rendered with deliberate naïveté. The simple depictions of buildings convey honesty and integrity. The artist concludes her inscription with “Chu-tsing, my venerable brother, asked me to imitate the old style.”
The first part of the inscription, however, expresses the dilemma of combining tradition with experimentation: “Some think bringing forth new ideas is good; others think relying on the past is good. I sing a new melody, but use the old tone. Am I neither here nor there?”
Trained in Beijing by artists of the former Manchu court, Zeng mastered the classical tradition in both technique and spirit. After moving to Honolulu in 1949, she began to experiment with Western abstract painting and developed a distinctive modern style. This work, as the inscription indicates, is an attempt to capture the spirit of a traditional ink painting.

Publication History

• Robert D. Mowry and Claudia Brown, A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 2007), cat. 6

Exhibition History

• A Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection, 1950-2000, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 11/03/2007 - 01/27/2008; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 06/28/2008 - 09/14/2008; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 10/11/2008 - 01/04/2009; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, 02/11/2009 - 05/24/2009

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