Birds in Wintry Trees

Object Details

• Artist

  Formerly attributed to Li Di (active late 12th-early 13th century)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Pang Yuanji 龐元濟 (1864-1949)

  Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer ((1875-1959) and (1887-1970))

• Provenance

  To 1916

  Pang Yuanji (1864-1949), Shanghai [1]

  From 1916 to 1970

  Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) and Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), New York, NY, Washington, DC, and Mt. Kisco, NY, purchased from Pang Yuanji in 1916 [2]

  From 1970

  Freer Gallery of Art, bequeathed by Agnes E. Meyer in 1970 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] The painting was published and illustrated in Pang Yuanji’s catalogue, Antique Famous Chinese Paintings Collected by P’ang Lai Ch’en, vol. 1 (Shanghai, Privately published by Pang Yuanji, 1916), no. 26: “Li Ti, Old Cedar and Winter Birds.”

  [2] In 1916 Pang Yuanji, with the assistance of Pang Zanchen and Seaouke Yue, sent a group of paintings illustrated in Antique Famous Chinese Paintings Collected by P’ang Lai Ch’en catalogue to New York and showed them to Charles Freer. See Ingrid Larsen, “‘Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures’: Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum,” Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), p. 23. Freer made a selection of paintings for his collection and advised the Meyers and Louisine Havemeyer with their acquisitions. Freer’s copy of the 1916 Pang catalogue includes pencil annotations indicating that this painting was purchased by Agnes E. Meyer.

  [3] See Deed of Gift, signed by Agnes E. Meyer’s children and dated to May 31, 1971, where the painting is listed under no. 1, copy in object file.

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1500s, 1640s

• Name

  Meyer, Eugene and Agnes E., Li, Di, Pang, Yuanji

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Pine tree, Landscapes, Art, Snow, Chinese Art, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings