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About the Artwork
Yun Shouping came from Piling (modern Changzhou), Jiangsu province, a center of floral, plant, and insect painting. He had joined the anti-Manchu resistance, was briefly imprisoned, and witnessed the death of family members in 1644. Like other artists, Yun Shouping expressed his Ming loyalism in coded pictures. The peony, king of flowers, and a spring garden motif developed new meaning during the Qing dynasty. The inscription indicates that Yun turns the flower into a motif representing the glorious past. The herbaceous peonies here appear somewhat withered and pale, with faint reddish veins running through its broken branches, perhaps a coded message. The inscription reads, An old painting by an anonymous painter of the Northern Song Dynasty has five varieties of flowers painted in the boneless manner. Its colors are so beguiling and beautiful, that even after several hundred years its lead pigments are like new. The skill with which the ink and colors were applied and the subtlety of its composition find no equal among modern followers.
Inscriptions
Artist's inscription, signature, and 3 seals: An old painting by an anonymous painter of the Northern Song Dynasty has five varieties of flowers painted in the boneless manner. Its colors are so beguiling and beautiful, that even after several hundred years its lead pigments are like new. The skill with which the ink and colors were applied and the subtlety of its composition find no equal among modern followers. On an autumn day in the yichou year [1685], Nantian, Shouping inscribed. [2 seals] Zhengshu; Shouping zhi yin.; Artist's poem (not translated). Signed Yuange. [seal] Nantian caoyi.; 3 additional seals of C. C. Wang 王季遷 (1907–2003).
Exhibition history
Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969). Inspired by Chinese Landscape and Art – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 14, 2017-February 5, 2018). China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Yun Shouping (Chinese, 1633–1690)
- Date
- 1685
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions
- Painting: 118.7 x 71.8 cm (46 3/4 x 28 1/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 226 x 84.4 cm (89 x 33 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of the American Foundation for the Maud E. and Warren H. Corning Botanical Collection
- Accession no.
- 1967.192
Provenance
?–1967: C. C. Wang 王季遷 [1907–2003], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1967–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
More by Yun Shouping in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009511
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