photo: Masatsugu Nokubo
Currently not on view
Ink Plum (Mo mei 墨梅),
undated
Jin Nong 金農, 1687–1764
Chinese
Qing dynasty, 1644–1912
1998-147
A poet and calligrapher, Jin Nong began painting at age fifty-nine, specializing in ink plum and bamboo. He was a native of Hangzhou, an area famed for its plum trees. In this painting, a domineering trunk and its branches are rendered with wet ink in bold, awkward strokes. Black dots accentuate the contours of the trunk, and numerous tiny white flowers—some open and others about to blossom—dance among the heavy branches. Because the Chinese plum tree flowers in winter, it became a symbol of the return of spring and renewal.
Information
Title
Ink Plum (Mo mei 墨梅)
Dates
undated
Maker
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
Painting: 98 x 47.5 cm. (38 9/16 x 18 11/16 in.)
Mount: 230 x 64 cm. (90 9/16 x 25 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951
Object Number
1998-147
Place Made
Asia, China
Signatures
signed: "Jiliushanmin Jin Nong, painted this in a temporary residence a Guangling [Yangzhou, Jiangsu province]."
Marks/Labels/Seals
Artist's seal: "Jin Nong yinxin" square relief (right, top)
Four characters in ink on label adhered to edge of rolled scroll
Culture
Period
Materials
Subject
–1998 John B. Elliott (Princeton, NJ), by bequest to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1998.
- Suzuki, Kei, comp. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku, vol. 1 of Amerika-Kanada hen. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982., A17–072
- 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. 42
-
"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 61 (2002): p. 49-99.
, p. 84
