Lychees (a); Two Hens (b)

Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures

Front A: Lychee (7 columns in semi-cursive script)

In the sunshine these red balls gleam like stars.
Small fragrant bags are scattered among green jade-like branches.
As the brocade shells crack, they look like red-veined nuts.
The pearls, like fish-eyes, are heavy with white milk.
The plum season has passed with the rain in the southern mountains.
The oranges are still sour and waiting for the frost around Lake Dongting.

From Xu Yin’s (9th–10th c.) poem. Dedicated to Mr. Xiang of the Jingquan District for his advice. [Signed] Baishi

[Translation by Keita Itoh and Lawrence Wu with Jean Schmitt and Caron Smith in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, ed., Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800–1950, Volume I: Text, New York: Random House, 1986, p. 162. Modified. The Romanization of Chinese characters has been changed from the Wade-Giles system to the pinyin system.]

朱彈星丸燦日光，綠瓊枝散小香囊。
籠綃殼綻紅紋粟，魚目珠涵白膜漿。
梅熟已過南嶺雨，橘酸空待洞庭霜。

徐寅詩。鏡泉鄉先生正。白石

Back B: Hens by Bamboo (1 column in semi-cursive script)

An eighty-two-year-old man, Baishi.

八十二歲老人白石。


Artist’s seals

Muren 木人 (on Lychee)
Muren 木人 (on Hens by Bamboo)


Collector’s seals

An Siyuan 安思遠 (Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 1929–2014)
An Siyuan 安思遠 (on Lychee)
An Siyuan cang 安思遠藏 (on Hens by Bamboo)

Robert H. Ellsworth American, New York (until 1986; donated to MMA)

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.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Between Two Cultures: A Selection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection," January 30–August 19, 2001.