Five Water Buffalo
This work shows water buffalo in different postures and from various angles to playfully convey a sense of the beloved animal's personality. The artist's inscription reveals that his family found it impossible to part with the delightful image:
I painted this for a family friend. My family persuaded me to repeat the composition and keep it for ourselves, since it is rather amusing.
(Wen Fong, trans., Between Two Cultures: Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001], p. 167)
I painted this for a family friend. My family persuaded me to repeat the composition and keep it for ourselves, since it is rather amusing.
(Wen Fong, trans., Between Two Cultures: Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001], p. 167)
Artwork Details
- 清/現代 齊白石 五牛圖 軸
- Title: Five Water Buffalo
- Artist: Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864–1957)
- Date: ca. 1937
- Culture: China
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 53 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. (135.3 x 33.7 cm)
Overall with mounting: 84 3/4 x 18 3/4 in. (215.3 x 47.6 cm)
Overall with knobs: 84 3/4 x 22 1/2 in. (215.3 x 57.2 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.267.219
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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