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Weeping Willow

Qi Baishi Chinese
ca. 1937
Not on view
This painting, executed shortly after the Japanese occupied Beijing in 1937, makes a point about life under foreign occupation, as Qi makes clear in his inscription:

Do not criticize Dao [Yuanming's] family for being weak, for lacking courage. There are times that willow branches must learn to bend [with the wind].

(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. 163)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 清/現代　齊白石　垂柳圖　軸
  • Title: Weeping Willow
  • Artist: Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864–1957)
  • Date: ca. 1937
  • Culture: China
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink on paper
  • Dimensions: 31 7/8 x 13 in. (81 x 33 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986
  • Object Number: 1986.267.221
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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