13 Items in this Learning Collection
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Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Bamboo and Rocks

Accession Number
1970/2.8

Title
Bamboo and Rocks

Artist(s)
Qian Zai

Object Creation Date
1787

Medium & Support
ink on paper

Dimensions
62 11/16 in. x 19 1/2 in. ( 159.3 cm x 49.5 cm )

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

Label copy
Inscription: “Painted for presentation to Mr. Xiaozhu, the prudent prefect of my hometown, for his elegant enjoyment, in the 6th month of the dingwei year [1787], [by] junior Qian Zai at age eighty …”
Two collectors’ seals
Qian Zai was a poet, government official, and a painter who worked completely in the literati tradition. Qian favored an expressionistic style and painted well into his old age. One well-known line in a poem Qian reads: “My bosom is so void that it contains not even one single object. My impassioned brush, however, is saturated with the universe.” This work depicts several bamboo stalks by a small creek. Qian's swift and spontaneous calligraphic strokes animate the composition, which possesses a wonderful warmth and informal quality.
Winter 2015 Gallery Rotation
Qian Zai was a poet, official, and painter who worked in the literati (amateur scholar-artist) tradition. According to the colophon, Qian created this animated painting of bamboo by a creek at the age of eighty, as a gift for a friend. Like the orchid, bamboo is often used in Chinese art as a symbol of a scholar with integrity. Here the composition is animated by Qian’s swift brushwork and tension is generated by the cropping of the bamboo leaves at the painting’s edge. A line from Qian’s poem inscribed on the painting reads: “my bosom is so void that it contains not even one single object. My impassioned brush, however, is saturated with the universe.”

Subject matter
A bamboo tree growing from a hill on the right side of the painting occupies the upper portion of the painting. The lower branches also extend out over a smal river that takes up the base of the painting. Ground (rocks) is depicted on either side of the river.

Physical Description
A vertical hanging scroll on white fabric. The image is in black ink on faded paper. A bamboo tree occupies most of the space. A signature is located in the middle on the left of the painting.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
hanging scroll

Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting

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
bamboo
hanging scrolls
ink
streams

2 Related Resources

Ink and Realisms
(Part of: Artist Associations and Art Movements)
W22 Susan Erickson - Art History 313
(Part of: F23 Susan Erickson Art History 311 Chinese Art)

& Author Notes

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