Couplet in clerical script

Object Details

• Artist

  Wu Xizai 吳熙載 (1799-1870)

• Label

  A new poem from an old brush may still have substance,

  Just as slender stones in clear water can be extraordinary.

  Admired for his seal carving, painting, and calligraphy, Wu Xizai was born and raised in the city of Yangzhou, in Jiangsu Province, an important commercial center to which his family had moved in an earlier generation. His father earned a meager living as a physiognomer, a kind of fortune-teller who could "read" a person's character and fate through examining his facial features. Despite these humble origins, Wu Xizai received a good education and passed the provincial qualifying exams, but made his living as a professional artist. In 1853, when advancing Taiping rebels threatened to engulf Yangzhou, Wu fled to relative safety in the nearby town of Taizhou, where he remained until 1864. During these years, he often stayed as a guest with various well-to-do friends and collectors, for whom he produced a steady stream of seals, paintings, and calligraphy.

  Although Wu Xizai was adept at all styles and forms of writing, he is most highly regarded for his works in seal script and clerical script, as seen here, which were firmly grounded in his study of ancient stele inscriptions. In translating these early forms of writing, he was a leading exponent of the styles and techniques pioneered by Deng Shiru (1743-1805; see scroll at left). Following Deng's manner, Wu held his brush straight upright and applied steady pressure, using only the middle of the brushtip to write. As a result the individual strokes are generally of more-or-less even width and the tonality of the ink is a consistent dark black with no sign of streaking, while both the internal structure of individual characters and the spacing between them are carefully balanced and maintained. Written with firmness and authority, Wu Xizai probably created this couplet in Taizhou during the prime his career.

• Provenance

  To 1997

  Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (born 1929), New York City, to 1997

  From 1997

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in 1997 [1]

  Notes:

  [1] The total gift from the Ellsworth collection consists of nearly three-hundred objects (F1997.42-.85 and F1998.83-294). All Chinese calligraphy in the proposed gift were published in Mr. Ellsworth's Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950 vol. 3 (New York: Random House, 1986) (see Curatorial Note 2, Joseph Chang and Stephen D. Allee, May 19, 1998, in the object record).

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Brushing the Past: Later Chinese Calligraphy from the Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (April 30, 2000 to January 2, 2001)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (1929-2014)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Freer Gallery of Art

• Type

  Calligraphy

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1840s, 1860s

• Name

  Ellsworth, Robert Hatfield

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Art, Couplet, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Robert Hatfield Ellsworth collection, Clerical script, Poetry

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)