Currently not on view
Three Letters (San zha 三札); a: Abundant Harvest (Sui feng tie 歲豐貼), b: Escaping Summer Heat (Tao shu tie 逃暑貼), c: Hasty Reply before Guests (Dui ke caocao tie 對客草草貼). ,
ca. 1093–94
Mi Fu 米黻, 1052–1107
Chinese
Northern Song dynasty, 960–1127
1998-51 a-c
One of the Four Masters of Song calligraphy, Mi Fu took pride in having mastered many earlier models, and he especially admired their unaffected spontaneity and expressiveness. Similar qualities enliven these letters that display brushwork differences reflecting the circumstances under which they were written. The calligraphy of Abundant Harvest, which recounts the artist’s good fortune during a time of peace and prosperity, was written at a leisurely pace, with smooth, elegant turns of the brush. In Escaping Summer Heat, Mi, using more angular brushwork with slightly misshapen characters, reported his satisfaction at spending summer in the cool mountains, while omitting mention of his refusal to collect taxes after a bad harvest. The impetuous, more cursive brushwork of Hasty Reply before Guests seems to reflect the artist’s unease about eluding a visit from a court official sent to investigate his management of district affairs.
Information
Title
Three Letters (San zha 三札);
a: Abundant Harvest (Sui feng tie 歲豐貼),
b: Escaping Summer Heat (Tao shu tie 逃暑貼),
c: Hasty Reply before Guests (Dui ke caocao tie 對客草草貼).
Dates
ca. 1093–94
Maker
Medium
Album of 3 leaves; ink on paper
Dimensions
Album: 41 x 29.5 x 1.5 cm. (16 1/8 x 11 5/8 x 9/16 in.)
Cloth box: 46.2 x 34.5 x 6.3 cm. (18 3/16 x 13 9/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951
Object Number
1998-51 a-c
Place Made
Asia, China
Signatures
signed
Culture
Period
Materials
–1998 John B. Elliott (Princeton, NJ), by bequest to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1998.
- Wen C. Fong, Images of the mind: selections from the Edward L. Elliott family and John B. Elliott collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1984)., cat. no. 6
-
"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 61 (2002): p. 49-99.
, p. 99 - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 263 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 279
