Man Holding Flower between Clasped Hands
10th century
Medium
Album leaf; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
11 x 7 in. (27.9 x 17.8 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Culture
China
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1924
Accession Number
24.14
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Asian Art collection, *Man Holding Flower between Clas Hands* is a delicate 10th-century album leaf painting from China, acquired through the Rogers Fund in 192. Measuring just 11 x 7 inches (27.9 x 17.8 cm), this intimate work in ink and color on paper captures a solitary figure in a gesture of quiet reverence—gently cradling a flower between clasped hands. The small scale invites close contemplation, evoking the personal, poetic nature of Chinese album art, which was prized by scholars and collectors for private admiration rather than grand display...