Dreaming of Flowers
This painting tells the story of how the scholar Wang Guozhen came to have the nickname “Dreaming of Flowers” (Menghua, 夢花). One day, Wang dozed off while at work in his garden. In a dream state, he walked into the garden, where he encountered an old man who lectured him on the illusory nature of sight, saying: “This riot of lushness around you . . . they are flowers, yet they are not, as flowers are only ever the illusion of flowers.” Light color and faint ink make the scene dreamlike, but they also reflect a renewed interest among nineteenth-century artists in Suzhou painters of the sixteenth century. This lightness of touch offered an antidote to the bold and heavy styles that had dominated the eighteenth century.
Artwork Details
- 清 翟繼昌 夢花圖 卷
- Title: Dreaming of Flowers
- Artist: Zhai Jichang (Chinese, 1770–1820)
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: 1807
- Culture: China
- Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 11 13/16 in. × 8 ft. 7 9/16 in. (30 × 263 cm)
Overall with mounting: 12 3/16 in. × 37 ft. 3 1/16 in. (31 × 1135.5 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Jane DeBevoise and the Calello Family, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.549.53
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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