Rock and grass in a planter, from an album of flower and rock arrangements in pots

Object Details

• Artist

  Sun Kehong (1532-1610)

• Colophon

  Wu Hufan (1894-1968)

• Label

  These two leaves are from an album of floral studies by Sun Kehong, a scholar-official who enjoyed painting as a leisure time pursuit. He was also known for designing an elegant garden-residence, which featured unusual stones and a collection of miniature trees and plants in pots. This pastime may have inspired these paintings. Miniature tree cultivation has been practiced in China since at least the eighth century and was exported to Japan, where it is known as bonsai.

  Sun Kehong's style celebrates "plain brushwork" and intentional "naivete" associated with scholar-painters in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). But the images also reveal details about the material culture of the period, including the detail of river-worn pebbles to anchor the orchid's roots, which are set in a "bulb bowl" of a characteristic shape that identifies it as a Jun-ware ceramic. The cloud-shaped rock with grass growing through a perforation reflects a favorite type of Ming painting. Scholars collected rocks and combined them with grass to reproduce the macrocosmic world on a small, comprehensible scale to encourage imaginative journeys within the garden walls.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Les trois reves du mandarin (October 22, 2009 to February 14, 2010)

  The Arts of China (November 18, 1990 to September 7, 2014)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Karen Y. Wang in memory of her father, Nan-Ping Wong

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1610s, 1570s

• Name

  Wu, Hufan, Sun, Kehong

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Art, Chinese Art, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Paintings, Still lifes