Poem

Calligrapher Gao Fenghan Chinese
1744
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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