Couplet

late 1990s

Not on view

This couplet was brushed by the prominent collector and painter C. C. Wang, who immigrated to the United States from China in 1949 and settled in New York. Paintings from Wang’s collection form the core of The Met’s holdings of premodern Chinese painting and calligraphy. The verse, adapted from a poem by the Song dynasty polymath Su Shi (1037–1101), describes a spare vignette from the recluse’s life:

Clear water, protruding stones, one can count the fish;
Dense bamboo, deep within, a bird calls.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

現代　王己千　行書七言對聯
Title: Couplet
Artist: Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang) (1907–2003)
Date: late 1990s
Culture: China
Medium: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on decorated paper
Dimensions: Image: 65 × 18 in. (165.1 × 45.7 cm)
Classification: Calligraphy
Credit Line: Gift of Yangming Chu, in honor of Rongxiang Zhang, 2019
Object Number: 2019.449a, b
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

By Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang)

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Tree-topped Shores and Distant Peaks, Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang), Ink and color on paper, China — Tree-topped Shores and Distant Peaks
Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang)
Undated, ca. 1949–55

Frame Drum, Wood, hide, Chinese (Uighyur) — Frame Drum
Chinese (Uighyur)
late 20th Century

Page from Illustrations and Explanations of the Three Jewels (Sanbō e-kotoba), one of the “Tōdaiji Fragments” (Tōdaiji-gire)

, Minamoto no Toshiyori Japanese, Page from a book; ink on decorated paper, Japan — Page from Illustrations and Explanations of the Three Jewels (Sanbō e-kotoba), one of the “Tōdaiji Fragments” (Tōdaiji-gire)
Calligraphy attributed to Minamoto no Toshiyori
1120

Landscape after Guo Xi, Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang), Hanging scroll; ink on paper, China — Landscape after Guo Xi
Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang)
dated 1937

Archer's Ring (清扳指), Bone, Chinese — Archer's Ring (清扳指)
Chinese
17th–19th century

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