Quatrain on a Spring Garden

Inscription: Artist’s inscription (5 columns in semi-cursive and standard scripts)

Last year I saw a branch scented with a red fragrance;
Faintly, I imagined red corollas with little makeup.
Today, in the palace garden, such colors abound.
Perhaps, without knowing it, I prayed to the god of spring.[1]

Bestowed on an imperial concubine.

去年枝上見紅芳，
約略紅葩傅淺妝。
今日庭中足顏色，
可能無意謝東皇。
賜貴妃

Artist’s Seals

乾卦
御書

Collectors' seals

Pan Zhengwei 潘正煒 (1791–1850)
潘氏墨緣

Pan Shicheng 潘仕成 (1804–1873)
德畬父

Pan Yanling 潘延齡 (19th c.)
曾藏潘健庵處

Xiang Hanping 香翰屏 (1890–1978)
曾藏香氏夢詩廬

He Guanwu 何冠五 (20th c.)
冠五清賞

Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913–1988)
顧洛阜
漢光閣

Illegible: 1

[1] The poem is a transcription of the Song emperor Guangzong’s (r. 1190-94) “題楊補之 《紅梅圖》 賜貴妃”. Translation from Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy 8th-14th Century, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. p. 242.

John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (by 1965–d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA); John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)

London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Collection of John M. Crawford, Jr.," June 17, 1965–August 1, 1965.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.

Museum Rietberg. "The Magic Power of Characters: 3000 Years of Chinese Writing and Calligraphy," November 20, 2015–March 20, 2016.

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. 18, cat. no. 26.

Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, p. 242, pl. 42.

Pan Zhengwei 潘正煒. Tingfan Lou xuke shuhua ji 聼帆樓續刻書畫記 (Sequel to catalogue of calligraphies and paintings recorded at the Tingfan Lou Studio). Preface dated 1849. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書. Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 11, p. 892.

Karlsson, Kim, and Alexandra von Przychowski, eds. Magie der Zeichen: 3000 Jahre chinesische Schiftkunst (The Magic power of Chinese characters: 3,000 years of Chinese writing and calligraphy). Exh. cat. Zurich: Museum Rietberg, [2015], pp. 138–39, cat. no. 67.