Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Instructions on Painting Plum Blossoms
Calligrapher He Shaoji Chinese
Not on view
清 何紹基 隷書畫梅訣 卷 紙本
Handscrolls were rarely used by Epigraphic School calligraphers, whose oversized characters and high-impact graphic forms generally called for larger formats. He Shaoji breaks with that trend here, inscribing a text on the proper technique for painting plum blossoms in clerical script, with two large characters per line. Handscrolls are intended to be viewed on a table at arm’s length, and He Shaoji’s powerful, archaic forms and bold brushwork would have been particularly impressive at such a close range. His wavering line, extreme variations of thick and thin in the brushwork, and willingness to saturate the paper after reloading his brush are all typical of his style, a kind of old-fashioned and casual rusticity.
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