Squirrels on the Chestnut Tree
1304
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1304
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Squirrels on the Chestnut Tree is a 1304 unspecified by Ge Shuying, a Ming Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Two squirrels play in a chestnut tree—one nibbles a nut on a branch, the other sniffs a fallen one below. The artist used quick, light strokes for their fur and thicker, wet strokes for the bark. Ge Shuying painted this in the 1300s, when ink was the main medium. His squirrels feel alive because of the way he layered those short, sharp lines. No one knows much about him, but his work fits the quiet, careful style of Yuan dynasty artists. If you like this, look up china, yuan dynasty (1271-1368) to see more ink paintings from the same time.
One squirrel perches on a branch nibbling a chestnut, while the other on ground is approaching a fallen chestnut. The painter used fine, short staccato strokes to simulate the animal’s soft fur, while the tree is depicted with broader wet strokes in a rougher manner. Ge Shuying is known for his depictions of squirrels in a monochrome style characterized by crisp, decisive brushstrokes. He may have been a Chan (Zen) priest-painter, or perhaps a Daoist painter, active in the Hangzhou region of eastern China. From there his works spread to Japan, where squirrel paintings gained the attention of…
Dr. Ju-hsi Chou argues that Yongtian and Songtian were different, but related (father-son, master-pupil, or brothers) painters of squirrels. Ge was apparently their family name. A Tokyo National Museum squirrel painting signed Songtian Shanren (松田山人) has a seal giving the artist's formal name as Ge Shuying (葛淑英).
Read the full account in the museum source.
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