A poet, collector, and bibliophile, Jin Nong did not take up painting until the age of fifty. Known as one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, Jin specialized in painting plum blossoms. He developed a distinctive style of calligraphy through the study of the squat clerical-script form of ancient stele writing.
Blossoming Prunus was painted for a high official only five years before Jin's death at age seventy-two. In his inscription, Jin speaks of the good fortune of the plum painters Yang Buzhi (1097–1169) and Ding Yetang (active mid-13th century), whose works gained imperial recognition. Jin then adds, jestingly:
"Now I, too, have done a likeness of latticed branches and scattered shadows. How might it also enter the Nine Enclosures [of the Forbidden City] and be submitted to imperial view?"
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Detail of upper left inscription
Detail of upper right inscription
Artwork Details
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清 金農 墨梅圖 軸
Title:Blossoming plum
Artist:Jin Nong (Chinese, 1687–1773)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:dated 1759
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image: 49 3/8 x 17 in. (125.4 x 43.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 85 1/2 x 21 in. (217.2 x 53.3 cm) Overall with knobs: 85 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (217.2 x 60.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988
Accession Number:1989.363.160
Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (6 columns in standard script):
It has been said that, by painting prunus blossoms, Yang Buzhi attained the wondrous in grouping flowers into masses. Emperor Huizong [thereupon] inscribed [on the painting two words]: “village prunus.” Ding Yetang [also] painted prunus, of which Emperor Lizong showed fondness. As a result, [he bestowed four words on the painting]: “wild prunus by the road side.” These two elders received praise from the emperors and were given critical appraisals; they indeed have become legends in art circles for a thousand antiquities to come. Now I too am painting the sweeping branches and quivering shadows [of the prunus]. How could I win my way into the imperial court and present my works for viewing by His Majesty? These words of jest after having completed the painting, to be presented to you, Guyuan, the honorable assistant secretary, for a laugh. On a wintry day of the jimao year [1759], the seventy-three-year-old man, Jin Nong from Hangjun, so inscribed.
[Translation from Chou, Ju-his, and Claudia Brown. The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting Under the Qianlong Emperor, 1735–1795. Exh cat. Phoenix, AZ: Phoenix Art Museum, 1985, cat. no. 62, p. 199]
In the collected works by the assistant secretary, there is a quatrain written to request a prunus painting from Jin Shoumen [Jin Nong]:
Having made the glorious Spring of West Lake its own, It also befriends a lone crane in leisurely hours. But since no brush on this earth can capture this, Let us find a Lin Bu to bring it alive.
This was written in the wuyin year under Qianlong [1758]. A year later, Shanren [Jin Nong] painted this in response. This is the very painting. Time passed and in the xinsi year [1761], the assistant secretary died. As the xinchou year [1781] approached, his heir Qiusheng, having invited me with Cao Zhongmei and Jiang Chunyu for a drink, produced this for us to see. In addition, there was an eight-panelled lantern shade, with prunus blossoms that Shanren had painted for the [late] assistant secretary. Since it was the fifteenth day of the first month, we therefore lit it to appreciate [the effects]. I composed seven lantern poems, among which is the following couplet:
In the old painting of Jin Nong, spring has sprung [to life]. Was it my fondness, that triggered the blossom in a fortnight.
Subsequently I advised Qiusheng to mount the shade into an album. Now that my three friends have passed away, I have been told that the lantern shade was bought by a man from Hangzhou. My son, Lian, however obtained this from elsewhere. I was startled and viewed the painting as if it were my old friend. Indeed I too am approaching that age when Jin Nong painted the picture.
I used to see prunus paintings by Shanren, in which dense blossoms in random pattern tended to be the rule. This painting, done in old age, however, distinguishes itself for being sparse and light. I hope my son can treasure it, for the blossoms on paper do not wither like the mortals we are. In the jiazi year of the Jiaqing era [1804], I, Zhu Xiudu at seventy-three years of age, inscribed it at Jintuoli. [Seal]: Zilu
Ma Jizuo 馬積祚 (20th c.) Ma Jizuo yin 馬積祚印 (square, intaglio)
Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913–1988) Hanguang Ge zhu Gu Luofu jiancang Zhongguo gudai shuhua zhi zhang 漢光閣主顧洛阜鑒藏中國古代書畫之章 Hanguang Ge 漢光閣 (square, relief) Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (square, intaglio)
Unidentified ? ? shou fu 囗囗壽福 (round, relief)
John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)
Phoenix Art Museum. "The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting under the Qianlong Emperors (1735–95)," August 27, 1985–October 1985.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting under the Qianlong Emperors (1735–95)," May 10–August 3, 1986.
Hong Kong Museum of Art. "The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting under the Qianlong Emperors (1735–95)," October 17–November 30, 1986.
New York. China House Gallery. "The Eccentric Painters of Yangzhou," October 13, 1990–December 15, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23–August 16, 1999.
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. "When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)," February 2–August 18, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Brush: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy," March 12–August 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Noble Virtues: Nature as Symbol in Chinese Art," September 10, 2022–January 29, 2023.
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. 144–45, fig. 67.
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. 51, cat. no. 170.
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