Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Old plum-branch with young shoots

  • loan
  • Description

    After the Second World War (1939-1945), Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) left mainland China and lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil, and the USA before he retired and settled in Taiwan in 1978. This vibrant study of an old plum tree in blossom was painted when Zhang was living in Brazil, where, in his typical extravagant fashion, he created a huge Chinese garden, the Bade Garden. The inscription includes a poem ending in ‘[painted] in June of a bingwu year when South America is entering early spring. The white-haired Yuan enjoyed the plum blossom in Campos do Jordão and forgot to return. [Painted] in high spirits in Bade Garden, in my own style instead of ancient manners.’

    In 1967 Zhang Daqian brought his paintings to the USA, as Michael Sullivan (1916-2013), then the Professor of Chinese Art at Stanford University, was curating an exhibition of Zhang’s work for the Stanford Museum. When Zhang saw how much Khoan (1919-2003) and Michael admired this painting, he gave it to ‘Mike wuxiong’ (my elder brother Michael) with a dedicatory inscription on the top right corner. The inscription reads ‘For my elder brother Michael to keep as a memento and to correct.’

  • Details

    Associated place
    America, South Brazil (place of creation)
    Date
    painting 1966
    inscription 1967
    Artist/maker
    Zhang Daqian (1899 - 1983) (artist)
    Zhang Daqian (1899 - 1983) (calligrapher)
    Associated people
    Michael Sullivan (1916 - 2013) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 265 x 76.5 cm (height x width)
    painting 183 x 63.4 cm (height x width)
    along roller 86.3 cm (length)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI2022.72
  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 150 on p. 152, illus. p.151 fig. II.150

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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