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Plum Blossoms
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
A native of Anhui province, Wang Shishen was a professional painter who specialized in plum blossoms. He moved to Yangzhou in the late 1720s to seek patrons. Here, the daring composition of a flowering plum branch is balanced through the addition of four poems. Wang’s poems evoke nostalgia for the forgotten Six Dynasties period and the glorious Sui dynasty, during which the Grand Canal was built while Yangzhou was the southern capital of the empire. Other inscriptions in the upper part of the painting allude to the fact that Wang had developed blindness in one eye, probably at the time he conceived this painting.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePlum Blossoms (梅花), probably 1739. Wang Shishen (Chinese, 1686–1759). Hanging scroll; ink on paper; painting: 144.4 x 75.7 cm (56 7/8 x 29 13/16 in.); overall: 238 x 89.1 cm (93 11/16 x 35 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith, 1985.366
