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Spring Offerings

Wu Changshuo Chinese
dated 1919
Not on view
Wu Changshuo adopted the "antiquarian epigrapher's taste" pioneered by Zhao Zhiqian (1829–1884): a deliberately naive, slightly awkward manner derived from the engravings on archaic stone monuments. Wu's favorite subjects were bold colorful images of flowers and rocks that found a ready market among Shanghai's new urban class. Spring Offerings presents popular emblems of long life and renewal appropriate for a New Year's greeting: lingzhi mushroom, narcissus, a garden rock, and the bright red berries of the nandina plant. It is not an image from nature, however, but an abstract arrangement that emphasizes epigraphic elements—round centered-tip brushwork, contrasts of form and blank space—in a simplified composition dominated by strong diagonal cross-movements.
Wu's boldly brushed poem reads:

The narcissus is long-lived and the lingzhi mushroom never fades,
At year's end their appearance consoles my loneliness.
The gnarled rock, set down by Heaven,
Is like the Kunlunnu tribesman who waits upon the [singing girl clad in] red silk.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 現代 吳昌碩 仙芝天竹圖 軸
  • Title: Spring Offerings
  • Artist: Wu Changshuo (Chinese, 1844–1927)
  • Date: dated 1919
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 58 x 31 1/2 in. (147.3 x 80 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 100 3/8 x 39 3/8 in. (255 x 100 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 100 3/8 x 43 in. (255 x 109.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1988
  • Object Number: 1988.324.2
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Orchid in a Vase, Wu Changshuo Chinese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, China
Orchid in a Vase
Wu Changshuo
dated 1902
Orchid, Wu Changshuo Chinese, Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on alum paper, China
Orchid
Wu Changshuo
early 20th century
Calligraphy in the Style of Stone Drums, Wu Changshuo Chinese, Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on paper, China
Calligraphy in the Style of Stone Drums
Wu Changshuo
20th century
Brewing Tea, Wu Changshuo Chinese, Handscroll; ink on paper, China
Brewing Tea
Wu Changshuo
dated 1918
Dew-Moistened Pearls, Wu Changshuo Chinese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, China
Dew-Moistened Pearls
Wu Changshuo
dated 1922

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