One Hundred Boys
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.“One Hundred Boys” is a popular pictorial subject that expresses an agricultural society’s abiding wish for teeming male offspring. Here, the prominent presence of lanterns suggests the occasion of the Lantern Festival, the climactic ending of the New Year’s celebrations, held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
This print, in the hanging scroll format, was made with three horizontal woodblocks impressed on a large sheet of paper. The complex architecture and fine line shading reveal knowledge of Western copperplate engravings introduced by the Jesuits.
This print, in the hanging scroll format, was made with three horizontal woodblocks impressed on a large sheet of paper. The complex architecture and fine line shading reveal knowledge of Western copperplate engravings introduced by the Jesuits.
Artwork Details
- Baizitu
- Title: One Hundred Boys
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: Design dated 1743
- Culture: China
- Medium: Woodblock print; color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 38 11/16 x 21 1/16 in. (98.2 x 53.5 cm)
Overall: 89 15/16 x 27 1/16 in. (228.5 x 68.7 cm)
Overall with knobs: 89 15/16 x 30 11/16 in. (228.5 x 77.9 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: On loan from the British Museum
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art