Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Poem
Calligrapher Gao Fenghan Chinese
Not on view
清 高鳳翰 書畫卷
Partial paralysis forced Gao Fenghan to switch midcareer from writing with his right hand to his left hand. While the right-handed work of his youth is elegant and somewhat conservative, his mature left-handed work, as seen here, is free and bold, full of unconventional character structures and wavering lines. Eighteenth-century Yangzhou was highly tolerant of eccentricity, and Gao’s late work was well received there. Gao was also a painter, and, on this scroll, the combination of word and image is a powerful statement of the close relationship between these two arts in Chinese culture.
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This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
