Artwork
明 仿陳淳 雜花圖 冊|Garden Flowers
明 仿陳淳 雜花圖 冊|Garden Flowers is an ink painting by the Ming dynasty painting artist Chen Chun. It dates from 1540 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
You see a single sheet from an album: ink and pale color on paper, showing a few loose stems of garden flowers.
Chen Chun painted this in 1540, copying an earlier artist’s style but making it his own. The brushwork is quick, almost like calligraphy, each petal feels alive with a single stroke.
To see how ink can bloom, look up the subject: flowers, china, flower.
Subject & Meaning
Classified within the still-life genre, the album comprises sixteen paintings executed in ink and color on paper, each leaf devoted to floral imagery.
Garden Flowers is a still-life album by Chen Chun that depicts flowers as its central subject. Classified within the still-life genre, the album comprises sixteen paintings executed in ink and color on paper, each leaf devoted to floral imagery. As a compilation of varied blossoms, the work belongs to the literati tradition of cataloguing seasonal blooms, a format that allowed painters to observe and represent the diversity of garden flora across a single bound set.
The album's title, "Garden Flowers," signals an encyclopedic approach to the floral world rather than a single symbolic motif. By gathering multiple flower subjects into one album, the work functions as a visual compendium of cultivated plants, reflecting the Ming-era interest in botanical observation and the aesthetic appreciation of nature's transient forms.
Technique & Style
This work is an album comprising sixteen painted leaves and a single leaf of calligraphy. The artist executed the images using ink and color applied directly onto paper supports. Stylistically, the pieces function as still-life studies, with each leaf dedicated to depicting various flowers. The handling of the medium reflects the traditions of Chinese garden flower painting from the mid-16th century.
History & Provenance
The work titled 明 仿陳淳 雜花圖 冊 (Garden Flowers) is an album of sixteen paintings with a leaf of calligraphy, executed in ink and color on paper by Chen Chun in 1540 in China. It belongs to the still‑life genre and depicts a flower. According to the catalog entry, the album was created as a cohesive group of works and later entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view.
No record of a specific commission survives; the piece is documented only through its dating, medium, and subsequent acquisition by the museum.
The album titled Garden Flowers, attributed to Chen Chun and dated 1540, is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work consists of sixteen painted leaves and one leaf of calligraphy executed in ink and color on paper. While the sources confirm the museum's ownership and the work's creation date, they do not provide a specific inventory or accession number, nor do they list any exhibition history for this piece.
Overview
This album page belongs to a Ming‑period collection of sixteen paintings and a single calligraphic leaf, executed with ink and light pigments on paper. The image presents a modest arrangement of garden flowers, rendered with a few slender stems and delicate blossoms that occupy the modest surface.
Context
During the Ming dynasty, reproducing the techniques of earlier Song‑Ming masters was a respected practice among scholars and artists. This piece exemplifies that cultural reverence, serving both as a study of Chen Chun’s method and as an object of aesthetic enjoyment within a private album.
Artist & collection
