Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and Bamboo: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Painting

Inspired by both the beauty and resilience of nature’s flora, East Asian poets and painters have, over the centuries, imbued particular plants and flowers with auspicious meaning, literary resonance, and scholarly virtue. In the Korean tradition, for example, the plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo are popularly known as the “Four Gentlemen,” for each is said to embody the noble qualities of the ideal Confucian gentleman-scholar. Because they survive the harsh winter months, the pine, bamboo, and Chinese plum (Prunus mume) symbolize strength in the face of adversity and are referred to collectively in Chinese art and literature as the “Three Friends of Winter.” Flowers affiliated with the four seasons and twelve months are pervasive themes in East Asian art.

This exhibition presents a selection of later East Asian paintings that feature popular botanical themes and symbols as their principal subject matter and marks the first time that a number of recent major acquisitions by the Department of Asian Art will be put on display. Most important among these new acquisitions are two majestic Korean screens: Bamboo through the Four Seasons, by the master bamboo-painter Yu Tôk-chang (1675–1756), and the breathtakingly beautiful ten-panel screen of Orchids and Rocks by Prince Yi Ha-ûng (1820–1898), father of the last king of the Chosôn dynasty (1392–1910).

Organized by the Department of Asian Art, Arthur M. Sackler Museum.