Plum Blossoms and Peonies
Medium
handscroll, ink on paper
Dimensions
28.9 × 534.7 cm · image: 26 × 96.2 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1980.13
Tags
male
About this artwork
One of the so-called Yangzhou Eccentrics (a group of painters who lived in Yangzhou and were known for their unorthodox art and lifestyle), Gao Fenghan depicts China’s two most loved flowers in full bloom—the “cold beauty,” or plum blossom, in the first section, and the “king of flowers,” or peony, in the second section. Painted in 1741, the year when Gao decided to leave the south and return home to Shandong province in eastern China, this work was likely a token of farewell. His casual brushwo...