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Paintings after Ancient Masters: Laozi Riding an Ox

Chen Hongshou

1625

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Chinese Orthodox School Renaissance Baroque Religious Oxen

Dominant colour

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Laozi Riding an Ox is a 1625 unspecified by Chen Hongshou, a Chinese Orthodox School work, depicting Oxen, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Chen Hongshou
When & what style?: 1625 · Chinese Orthodox School
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see an old man with a long beard riding a small ox across a blank background. Chen Hongshou painted this after copying an ancient Chinese story about Laozi, the founder of Daoism. The ox looks almost like a toy, and the man’s robe folds in sharp, stiff lines—nothing soft or natural. That stiffness was on purpose; Chen liked to mix old styles with his own odd twist. If you like this, look up more works from china, ming dynasty (1368–1644).

The story of this work

Overview

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.…