This painting, by the southern artist Luo Zhichuan, demonstrates the renewed interest in the brush idioms of the Northern Song artists Li Cheng (919–967) and Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090) that grew after the Mongol conquest forcefully reunified north and south China in 1279. Luo’s painting may be read as a bleak commentary on life under the Mongols, for the image of a wintry grove of trees has long been understood as a metaphor for likeminded men enduring political adversity. Similarly, the two male pheasants on the shore in the foreground symbolize scholars living in reclusion, while the varied pattern (wen) of their plumage is a symbol of literary cultivation (also wen). Luo contrasts their stoic endurance with the agitated movement of dozens of circling crows—a reference to petty opportunists.
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inscription at upper right
painting
with mounting, rollers and knobs
seal at upper right
seal at left side
seal at lower right
1 of 2
2 of 2
Seal upper left
Artwork Details
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元 羅稚川 古木寒鴉圖 軸
Title:Crows in Old Trees
Artist:Luo Zhichuan (Chinese, active ca. 1300–30)
Period:Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
Date:early 14th century
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 52 x 31 5/8 in. (132.1 x 80.3 cm) Overall with mounting: 9 ft. 6 1/4 in. x 38 3/4 in. (290.2 x 98.4 cm) Overall with knobs: 9 ft. 6 1/4 in. x 42 1/2 in. (290.2 x 108 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1973
Accession Number:1973.121.6
Inscription: No artist’s signature or inscription
Artist's seals
Luo shi Zhichuan 羅氏稚川 Youxi hanmo 遊戲翰墨
Label strips
1. Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907–2003), 1 column in standard-clerical script, undated; 1 illegible seal:
Anonymous Yuan painting, Crows in Old Trees, divine class. Authenticated by Zhenyuan [Wang Jiqian].
元人 《古木寒鴉圖》 神品。真園鑑定。
2. Artist unknown, 1 column in standard script, undated:
Song painter Li Yingqiu’s [Li Cheng’s, 919-967] Crows in Old Trees, a genuine work of the divine class.
[ C. C. Wang Family , New York, until 1973; sold to MMA]
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," October 1, 1968–November 4, 1968.
New York. Asia House Gallery. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," January 9, 1969–February 2, 1969.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Song and Yuan Paintings: Exhibition of Newly Acquired Chinese Paintings," November 1, 1973–January 20, 1974.
London. British Museum. "Song and Yuan Paintings," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.
Princeton University Art Museum. "Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliot Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University," April 15–June 17, 1984.
Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. "Landscape Painting in the East and West," April 17, 1986–June 1, 1986.
Kobe City Museum. "Landscape Painting in the East and West," June 7, 1986–July 13, 1986.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliot Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University," September 18, 1987–January 10, 1988.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Imperial Painting of the Ming Dynasty: The Zhe School," March 10–May 9, 1993.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Imperial Painting of the Ming Dynasty: The Zhe School," June 6–August 1, 1993.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Arts of Korea," June 7, 1998–January 24, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C.C.Wang Family Collection," September 2, 1999–January 9, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bridging East and West: The Chinese Diaspora and Lin Yutang," September 15, 2007–February 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Yuan Revolution: Art and Dynastic Change," August 21, 2010–January 9, 2011.
Shanghai Museum. "Masterpieces of Chinese Tang, Song and Yuan Paintings from America," November 3, 2012–January 3, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, pp. 95–96, 104, 147, cat. no.16.
Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, p. 2, cat. no. A1-002.
Barnhart, Richard M. Along the Border of Heaven: Sung and Yüan Paintings from the C. C. Wang Family Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 121–26, figs. 55, 57.
Fong, Wen C. et al. Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliott Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University. Exh. cat. Princeton, N.J.: Art Museum, Princeton University in association with Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 116, fig. 110.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, p. 405, pl. 92.
Yang Zhenguo 杨振国. Haiwai cang Zhongguo lidai ming hua: Liao, Jin, Xixia, Yuan 海外藏中国历代名画: 辽, 金, 西夏, 元 (Famous paintings of successive periods in overseas collections) Edited by Lin Shuzhong 林树中. vol. 4, Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 1998, pp. 158–59, pls. 98, 98a.
Unidentified artist Chinese, active mid-12th century
mid-12th century
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