Zhou Dunyi admiring lotus flowers
The melancholy figure in this painting is Zhou Dunyi, a major philosophical thinker of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). Late in life, Zhou retired to a rustic retreat at the foot of Mount Lu in Jiangxi Province, where he penned his famous “On the Love of the Lotus,” an ode to his favorite flower. Some images of Zhou depict him as peaceful and carefree, but Ren Xun’s painting, in which the decaying blossoms and leaves of late summer mirror the careworn features of the aging scholar, presents a more brooding vision.
Artwork Details
- 清 任薰 湖畔觀蓮圖 摺扇
- Title: Zhou Dunyi admiring lotus flowers
- Artist: Ren Xun (Chinese, 1835–1893)
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
- Date: late 19th century
- Culture: China
- Medium: Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 7 3/16 × 20 5/16 in. (18.3 × 51.6 cm)
Sheet: 14 15/16 × 22 7/16 in. (38 × 57 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Jane DeBevoise and the Calello Family, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.549.32a, b
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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