Dong Xiaowan in her sickbed
Stories of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai are often tinged with tragedy. Such is the tale of Dong Xiaowan, who is depicted here in a state of exhaustion and melancholy. She is said to have left the demanding public life of a courtesan in the Qinhuai district to become a concubine of the prominent scholar Mao Xiang. Despite the improvement in her situation, Dong succumbed to illness in 1651 at the age of twenty-eight, as a result of cumulative fatigue from her early years in the pleasure quarter.
Artwork Details
- 清/現代 俞明 董小宛病榻小影 軸
- Title: Dong Xiaowan in her sickbed
- Artist: Yu Ming (Chinese, 1884–1935)
- Date: early 20th century
- Culture: China
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: 31 3/4 x 17 1/8 in. (80.6 x 43.5 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.267.150
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Yu Ming
dated 1923
Chinese (Uighyur)
late 20th Century
Unidentified artist
mid-12th century
China
ca. 1412–30
Yu Ming
early 20th century
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