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Palace Ladies by a Lotus Pond

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At A Glance

Period

18th century
Geography

China
Material

Ink and color on silk
Dimension

H x W (image): 38.4 x 314.4 cm (15 1/8 x 123 3/4 in)
Accession Number

F1903.114
EDAN ID

edanmdm:fsg_F1903.114

Object Details

Artist

Formerly attributed to Zhou Wenju (傳)周文矩 (active mid-10th century)
Description

Depicting a scene of women, children and servants (total of fifteen figures) engaged in various activities, including playing weiqi and playing musical instruments, both inside and outside a pavilion overlooking a lotus pond with a pair of mandarin ducks. In the middle there is one figure on each side of a fence covered with a flowering vine. To the left stand a woman and a servant (who holds a zither) in a pavilion containing a table with scholarly implements and a ding, and with a painting on a screen.

Signature at lower left; total of 27 seals (17 on painting), four inscriptions (poems) on painting, five colophons, no labels. Unused frontispiece with cloud motif. Ivory pin.
Label

This handscroll is attributed to the celebrated painter Zhou Wenju, who served at the court of the Southern Tang kingdom (937-975). Zhou was most highly regarded for his depictions of elegant palace women as they attended their everyday duties. Here, a group of ladies, children, and servants have gathered at a pavilion built over a lotus pond in a residential quarter of the palace grounds. Some of them while away the time with a game of weiqi (better known in the West by its Japanese name, go), which was traditionally considered one of the polite arts. Two other ladies with fishing rods stand by the pond, one of them beckoning a servant to bait her hook.

While this painting bears a general thematic relationship to the tradition associated with Zhou Wenju, the overall composition, use of color, and stylistic execution are much closer to the approach popularized by the Ming dynasty painter, Qiu Ying (ca. 1494-1552), and may have been executed by an eighteenth-century follower after one of his designs.
Provenance

To 1903

Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1903 [1]

From 1903 to 1919

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1903 [2]

From 1920

Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]

Notes:

[1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, L. 333, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. This object exhibits seals, colophons, or inscriptions that could provide additional information regarding the object’s history; see Curatorial Remarks in the object record for further details.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
Collection

Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History

Women in Chinese Painting (November 9, 2013 to April 27, 2014)

East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art (February 24 to May 13, 2007)

Palaces and Pavilions: Grand Architecture in Chinese Painting (September 29, 2002 to March 30, 2003)
Previous custodian or owner

Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (C.L. Freer source)

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
Origin

China
Credit Line

Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Type

Painting
Restrictions and Rights

CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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