Poem
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.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.
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.
Artwork Details
- 清朝 高鳳翰 行草 《自書詩》 卷 紙本設色
- Title: Poem
- Calligrapher: Gao Fenghan (Chinese, 1683–1748)
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: 1744
- Culture: China
- Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 7 1/2 × 104 1/8 in. (19.1 × 264.5 cm)
Overall with knobs: 8 in. × 26 ft. 1/2 in. × 2 1/4 in. (20.3 × 793.8 × 5.7 cm) - Classification: Calligraphy
- Credit Line: Lent by Guanyuan Shanzhuang Collection
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art