Paintings after Ancient Masters: Volume 1
1625
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1625
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Paintings after Ancient Masters: Volume 1 is a 1625 unspecified by Chen Hongshou, a Chinese Orthodox School work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This is a small album of twenty paintings—landscapes, people, and flowers—all copied from much older Chinese art. One page shows a woman in flowing robes, standing alone. Chen Hongshou painted these late in life, when his style had grown quirky and sharp. He made everything tiny, like a miniature garden, but still packed with detail. The copies feel fresh, not stiff. To see how he shrinks whole worlds onto paper, look up other works by Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598/99–1652).
The twenty paintings in this double album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not found in the other albums from the latter part of his career. His late works are wonderful summations of Chen's peculiar and quirky art—archaistic, hyper-refined—but without accompanying shallowness or sentimentality. His figures and landscapes in the late albums are miniaturized, not unlike the small Chinese gardens, or the carefully selected small table rocks or old roots used for contemplation to see the world in miniature.…
This album was owned by Weng Tonghe, who was tutor to the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1862–75) and the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875–1908).
Read the full account in the museum source.
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