Couplet
Zhao Zhiqian, the leading scholar-artist of his day, grew up in a merchant family but received a classical education in order to pursue a career in government. Passing the provincial civil-service examination in 1859, Zhao spent the next twelve years in Beijing selling his art while trying unsuccessfully to pass the capital examination before being awarded a post as district magistrate in Jiangxi Province in 1872.
Zhao was equally renowned as a calligrapher, seal carver, and painter. He is best known for a distinctive "square-brush" style of calligraphy derived from the engraved stone writings of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), as seen in his dedication and signature here, but he also developed a distinctively plump seal-script manner exemplified by this couplet, which expresses a sentiment appropriate for a Confucian household:
Great virtue comes from forbearance,
sincerity comes from a mind free from deception.
(translated by Jason Zhixin Sun)
Zhao was equally renowned as a calligrapher, seal carver, and painter. He is best known for a distinctive "square-brush" style of calligraphy derived from the engraved stone writings of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), as seen in his dedication and signature here, but he also developed a distinctively plump seal-script manner exemplified by this couplet, which expresses a sentiment appropriate for a Confucian household:
Great virtue comes from forbearance,
sincerity comes from a mind free from deception.
(translated by Jason Zhixin Sun)
Artwork Details
- 清 趙之謙 篆書五言對聯
- Title: Couplet
- Artist: Zhao Zhiqian (Chinese, 1829–1884)
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: dated 1867
- Culture: China
- Medium: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on paper
- Dimensions: Image (each): 71 5/8 x 18 15/16 in. (181.9 x 48.1 cm)
Overall with mounting (each): 92 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. (235 x 59.7 cm) - Classification: Calligraphy
- Credit Line: Gift of Judith G. and F. Randall Smith, in honor of Maxwell K. Hearn, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.345.1, .2
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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7597. Couplet
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