Artwork
明 劉世儒 月下雪梅圖 軸|Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow
明 劉世儒 月下雪梅圖 軸|Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow is an ink painting by the Ming dynasty painting artist Liu Shiru. It dates from 1574 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The moon adds a contemplative, luminous atmosphere frequently linked in Chinese literary and visual tradition to solitude, longing, and the passage of time.
Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow depicts a plum tree beneath a moon, rendered in ink on silk by Liu Shiru in 1574. The plum blossom (meihua) is one of the most enduring symbols in Chinese painting, traditionally representing resilience, purity, and renewal because the tree flowers at the end of winter, often pushing through snow. Pairing the blossoms with moonlight and snow heightens these associations, evoking purity, stillness, and the quiet triumph of life enduring in harsh conditions.
The moon adds a contemplative, luminous atmosphere frequently linked in Chinese literary and visual tradition to solitude, longing, and the passage of time. Together, the moon, the flowering tree, and the implied snow construct a meditation on perseverance and refined beauty in adversity, themes that align the work with the literati tradition of using natural subjects to convey moral and emotional ideals.
Technique & Style
The work is a hanging scroll executed in ink on silk, a typical support for Ming dynasty literati painting. As a landscape, it renders a moonlit plum tree under snow with restrained brushwork characteristic of the artist’s style. The composition emphasizes the interplay of light and dark, using monochrome ink to convey texture and atmosphere.
The scroll format allows a vertical viewing experience, guiding the eye from the moon above to the blossoming branches below.
History & Provenance
The work titled "Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow" is a hanging scroll painted in ink on silk by the Ming‑period artist Liu Shiru. Records assign its creation to the year 1574 and confirm that it was produced in China. The scroll entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on public display. Its iconography features a moonlit plum tree. No earlier ownership records are provided in the available sources.
Context
Liu Shiru’s 1574 hanging scroll Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow exemplifies Ming‑dynasty literati landscape painting, combining delicate plum blossoms with a moonlit scene to evoke poetic solitude. The work, executed in ink on silk, is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. As a representative example of the period’s genre, the piece illustrates how Liu Shiru merged poetic subject matter with brushwork techniques, positioning the painting within studies of plum imagery and lunar motifs in Chinese art history.
Overview
Flowering Plum in Moonlight and Snow is a hanging scroll executed in ink on silk by the Chinese artist Liu Shiru in 1574. The composition centers on a gnarled plum tree, its twisted trunk and sparse branches rendered with precise brushwork to convey age and resilience. The artist employs a monochromatic palette, utilizing varying ink densities to depict snow accumulation on the limbs and the soft, diffused glow of moonlight against the silk ground.
Significant negative space surrounds the tree, a deliberate compositional choice characteristic of Ming dynasty literati painting to evoke a sense of stillness and atmospheric depth. This work reflects Liu Shiru's specialization in bird-and-flower subjects, where he often combined meticulous observation of natural forms with poetic allusion. Created during the mid-Ming period, the painting exemplifies the era's continued engagement with traditional themes while demonstrating the artist's technical mastery in capturing the ephemeral qualities of winter light and the enduring spirit of the plum blossom.
Artist & collection
