Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures

1. 2 columns in standard script at the end of the painting, dated 1628:

Frost and dew have fallen; leaves on trees are all gone. Human shadows on the ground; a skyward gaze at the bright moon. Guoting [Zhang Ruitu] painted and wrote this in the spring of the wuchen year.[1]

霜露既降，木葉盡脫。人影在地，仰見明月。戊辰春果亭圖寫。

2. 19 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1629:

The Great River flows east, waves washing away great men of all antiquity! An ancient fort on the western bank: they say this is the Red Cliff of Yong Zhou [Zhou Yu, 175‒210] of the Three Kingdoms (220‒280)! Wild rocks pierce the sky, startled waves crash on the shore, uprolling a thousand piles of snow. The River and mountains, like a painting—at that time, how many heroes there were! From far I remember Gongjin [Zhou Yu] in those years: just married to the Younger Qiao, heroic demeanor bursting forth! With feathered fan and silken kerchief, as he conversed and laughed, masts and rudders flew into ashes, perished in the smoke! Here in this ancient kingdom, I wander in spirit, so full of feeling! Men must laugh at me for getting white hairs so very early. The human realm is like a dream: one cup of wine—I’ll pour a libation to the river moon.[2]
Written for my senior friend Lu Haitian, a master of letters, in the summer of the yisi year. Guoting Shanren, Ruitu

大江東去，浪淘盡，千古風流人物。故壘西邊，人道是，三國周郎赤壁。亂石穿空，驚濤拍岸，捲起千堆雪。江山如畫，一時多少豪傑。 遥想公瑾當年，小喬初嫁了，雄姿英發。羽扇綸巾，笑談間，樯橹灰飛煙滅。故國神遊，多情應笑我，早生華髮。人生如夢，一尊還酹江月。已巳夏為陸海田世丈詞宗書。果亭山人瑞圖

Artist's seals

Zhang Ruitu yin (twice) 張瑞圖印（二鈐）
Jiezi Jushi 芥子居士
Zuo zhuguo shaoshi daxueshi zhang 左柱國少師大學士章

Label strip

Nagao Ko 長尾甲 (1864–1942), 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated; 1 seal:

張二水 《後赤壁圖》 卷。雨山長尾甲簽贉。 [印]： 雨山

Colophon

Nagao Ko 長尾甲 (1864–1942), 13 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1921; 2 seals:

明季畫風往往洗除穠華，崇尚冷峭，於是荊浩、關仝之法重於士流。張二水初宗師大癡，亦私淑荊、關，秀蒼精勁，頗得神肖。是卷坡老後赤壁賦詞意。崇禎元年戊辰作圖，越明年已巳補書浪淘沙詞，筆法尤極奇逸，蓋其興到意會而所作，書畫雙絕，並世諸家能比肩者幾希矣。但清議不慊於其操守，然彼一時也。今觀二水筆墨，祗取其絕技而不必責備耳。大正辛酉十月之望長尾甲識。 [印]： 長尾甲印、雨山

Collectors' seals

Lu Xinyuan 陸心源 （1834–1894）
歸安陸樹聲收藏金石書畫印

Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 （John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913–1988）
顧洛阜
漢光閣
漢光閣主顧洛阜鋻藏中國古代書畫之章

Unidentified
念岵眼福

[1] Translation from department records.
[2] Translated by Jonathan Chaves in The Chinese Painter as Poet, exhibition catalogue, New York: China Institute in America, 2000, p. 39, cat no. 18.

John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23–August 16, 1999.

New York. China Institute in America. "The Chinese Painter as Poet," September 14, 2000–December 10, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," August 28, 2004–February 20, 2005.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance," January 23–September 13, 2009.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Show and Tell: Stories in Chinese Painting," October 29, 2016–August 6, 2017.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.

Weng, Wan-go, and Thomas Lawton. Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: A Pictorial Survey: 69 Fine Examples from the John Crawford, Jr. Collection. New York: Dover Publications, 1978, pp. 48–49, cat. no. 45.

Shih Shou-ch'ien, Maxwell K. Hearn, and Alfreda Murck. The John M. Crawford, Jr., Collection of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Checklist. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, p. 37, cat. no. 116.