Plum

Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (21 columns in semi-cursive script)

No day passes without the mention of plum in my poems.
The window facing the river is opened to view it.
During the night the east wind transports the soul.
Whence comes the sound of the flute on the river?

In the summer, the late fourth month, of the bingxu year (1886), as the sky had cleared after the shower, I sat quietly in my small studio and painted this plum in the style of Zhushi Shannong [Wang Mian, 1287–1359]. Dedicated to Lianfu [Lu Hui, 1821–1920] for his advice. [Signed] Xinlan, Jin Lan

[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. 107. Modified. The Romanization of Chinese characters has been changed from the Wade-Giles system to the pinyin system.]

無日詩中不說梅，小牕臨水為花開。
東風一夜消魂里，何處笛聲江上來。

丙戌夏，四月下澣，微雨新晴，小齋靜坐，戲擬煮石山農筆意，即請廉夫世長方家先生指正。心蘭金湅


Artist’s seal

Xinlan chizeng 心蘭持贈


Collector’s seals

An Siyuan 安思遠 (Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 1929–2014)
An Siyuan 安思遠
Songpu Lu cang 松瀑廬藏

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

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Painting: Selections from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection," February 2–September 25, 1988.