Accession Number
1986/2.12

Title
Tea Blossoms, Pine Branches and Mynah Bird

Artist(s)
Ren Xun (Jen Hsün)

Object Creation Date
circa 1835-1857

Medium & Support
ink and color on paper

Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection Fund

Label copy

This painting is part of a centuries-long tradition of bird and flower paintings (huaniao hua) in China. Its elements convey the effect of flowers in the early spring landscape and create a handsome design—pine branches stretching across the surface of the painting are dotted with the brilliant red of tea blossoms (a variety of the camellia), while the mynah bird spreads its wings as if about to alight on the tree.
Ren Xiong was a highly individualistic painter with a wide range of styles. A native of Xiaoshan in Zhejiang Province, just south of Shanghai, his loose and spontaneous style was a model for early twentieth-century painters in Shanghai, where Ren Xiong frequently traveled to sell his works to an eager market. 

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
hanging scroll

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Birds
Plants
bird-and-flower paintings
birds (motifs)
flowers
hanging scrolls
pines