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Plum blossoms

Plum blossoms
(梅 花)
 1736

Medium
ink and colour on paper
Measurements
109.6 × 30.2 cm (image)
Place/s of Execution
China
Inscription
inscribed in ink c.l.: 乾 隆 元 年 春 十日 / 巢林 書 堂 汪士慎
stamped in red ink (in seal script) c.l.: 近人 / 汪 / 士慎
Accession Number
1715-D4
Department
Asian Art
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1956
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Gordon Darling Foundation
Gallery location
Not on display
Physical description
This painting depicts a plum tree that rises in energetic branches that twist and turn in arduous movements and moving in and out of the borders of the painting. In the midst of the expressive rhythmic movements are clusters of blossoms. An innovative semi-abstract composition is created. As an early painting executed when WANG was fifty years old, the renderings of the branches are descriptive and representational, outlined and structurally shade. Dark moss dots are added along the sides of the plum branches in ink and green colour. However, in WANG’s later paintings, the branches are depicted or written in calligraphic brushstrokes of subtle ink. The calligraphic inscription is written in subtle, delicate characters.