Lotus
Wu Xizai Chinese
Not on view
Like many other scholars of his time, Wu Xizai was actively engaged in reconstructing the past to fit discoveries made through study of authentic bronze and stone inscriptions. Appreciation for carved script styles deepened as the historical value of Han and Six Dynasties stones called into question later brush written model books. Wu Xizai brought an aesthetic preference for firm, sustained brushwork into his seal carving and painting. His elegant seal cutting style, seen in the two cinnabar-ink impressions that follow his inscription on this painting, was greatly admired by Wu Changshi (1844–1927).
