Couplet in standard script

Object Details

• Artist

  Zhao Zhiqian 趙之謙 (1829-1884)

• Label

  When tiger and leopard change, it shows in the signs of nature;

  When the phoenix soars aloft, the world of writing is glorious.

  One of the foremost calligraphers, painters, and seal carvers of the nineteenth century, Zhao Zhiqian was born to a merchant family in Guiji (modern Shaoxing), Zhejiang province. A precocious youth, he received a solid education and was intent on pursuing a career as a scholar-official. He passed the provincial examinations in nearby Hangzhou, but was soon forced to flee the city when Taiping rebels captured it in March 1860. Zhao then made his way to the capital Beijing, where his reputation as an up-and-coming artist had preceded him. He failed his first attempt at the national examinations, and spent much of the 1860s either preparing for the exams or traveling back and forth to Beijing in a fruitless quest to pass them. Eventually, Zhao secured a recommendation in 1872 for a government position in Jiangxi Province, where he ultimately served as prefect in three different locations and died of illness in 1884.

  Zhao Zhiqian was trained when young in the model-letters tradition, however he was always interested in more ancient forms of calligraphy, and around the age of thirty, he struck out in new directions. Strongly attracted to the works of Deng Shiru (1743-1805), Zhao became a follower of this tradition and eventually developed his own unique style. He is particularly renowned for works written in the early forms of standard script found on stone monuments from the Northern Wei dynasty (386-535), as seen in this couplet. Zhao's calligraphy is characterized by boldness, weight, and amplitude, while subtle changes in the brushstrokes and slight modulations in the otherwise uniform tonality of the ink respond to the complexity of the structural forms. Individual characters lean perceptibly upward to the right, while the rounded, upcurved finishing strokes on several characters furnish the work with a distinctly lively quality.

• 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

  1880s, 1860s

• Name

  Ellsworth, Robert Hatfield

• Place

  China

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)