This album has four paintings by the late Ming master Chen Hongshou and seven by his son Chen Zi. The first is one of the most iconic images in Chen Hongshou’s oeuvre—a mournful self-portrait depicting the artist drowning his sorrows in wine. It is followed by paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers, and figures. The combining of diverse subjects in a single album was known as “zahua,” and it was an opportunity for a painter to demonstrate versatility. A zahua album is meant to delight the viewer with variety, as a new subject appears with each turn of the page.
The paintings may have been brought together into an album by a collector at a later date, or even perhaps by Chen Zi himself. Comparison of the two men’s work reveals that while Chen Zi worked in his father’s style, he could not match his father’s fluidity or quirky charm.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
leaf a
leaf b
leaf c
leaf d
leaf e
leaf f
leaf g
leaf h
leaf i
leaf j
leaf k
colophon
detail
album cover
Artwork Details
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明/清 陳洪綬、陳字 雜畫 冊
Title:Figures, flowers, and landscapes
Artist:leaves a–d by Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598/99–1652)
Artist: leaves e–k by Chen Zi (Chinese, 1634–1711)
Period:Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties
Date:one leaf dated 1627
Culture:China
Medium:Album of eleven leaves; ink and color on silk
Dimensions:Image: 8 3/4 x 8 9/16 in. (22.2 x 21.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng, 1999
Object Number:1999.521a–k
Inscription: Artists’ inscriptions and signatures[1]
Leaf A (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
Again we have lost several thousand li of [national] territory. Shall we ever talk about this yet again? I feel lucky to have some land to farm as an outsider, but worry that armed rebels who are rising up in the Wu and Yue regions [modern Jiangsu and Zhejiang] will rob my granary. In the meanwhile there is still time to drink to our hearts’ content, and I will certainly go visit you. The Zhu brothers have all asked me to send their regards. Please remember me to the venerable Zong [Zhang Dai, 1597–1679] and Yan [Zhang Yanke, active mid-17th c.]. To my learned brotherly friend Ping [Zhang Pingzi, active mid-17th c.]. Your junior, Hongshou.
Leaf C (3 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1627):
Tall wutong and old osmanthus trees shade the streets from the sky. Brewing tea with water saved from early summer rain delights me. [A painting] was drawn for a visitor to hang on his wall. In flying snow and cold moonlight someone sits in an empty studio.
On a pure summer day in the dingmao year, Hongshou.
高梧老桂暗天街，梅水烹茶有好懷。 寫與來君懸壁去，雪飛月冷坐空齋。 丁卯清夏，洪綬
Leaf D (1 column in semi-cursive script):
A branch of plum blossoms painted by Hongshou in celebration.
洪綬寫楳華一枝為賀。
Leaf K (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Portrait of the seventh arhat after Guanxiu [active ca. 940], presented for your advice. Xiaolian, Wuyan [Chen Zi].
倣貫休第七尊者。清教。小蓮無言
Artists’ seals
Chen Hongshou 陳洪綬 Hongshou 洪綬 [Leaf A, B, C] Hongshou 洪綬 [Leaf D] Chen Zi 陳字 Xiaolian 小蓮 [Leaf K]
Label strip
Unidentified artist, 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated (mounted on brocade cover): 陳老蓮畫冊
Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng , New York (until 1999; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chinese Painting, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," August 28, 2004–February 20, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Bridging East and West: The Chinese Diaspora and Lin Yutang," September 15, 2007–February 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance," January 23–September 13, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhiliu (1910–1997)," February 2–August 1, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of the Chinese Album," September 6, 2014–March 29, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Show and Tell: Stories in Chinese Painting," October 29, 2016–August 6, 2017.
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California at Berkeley. "Repentant Monk: Illusion and Disillusion in the Art of Chen Hongshou (1599–652)," October 25, 2017–January 28, 2018.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Learning to Paint in Premodern China," February 18, 2023–January 7, 2024 on view February 18–July 16, 2023.
White, Julia M. "Turbulent Times for a Repentant Monk." Orientations 48, no. 5 (September/October 2017). pp. 100–101, fig. 1.
Cahill, James. The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese painting. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982, pp. 108–109, pls. 4.1–4.2.
Yiyuan duoying 兿苑掇英(Gems from Chinese fine arts) 34: Special issue on the collection of Weng Wango, January 1987. pp. 25, 30–32.
"Fuzi hece 父子合冊 (Albums by father and son)." Yiyuan duoying 藝苑掇英 (Gems from Chinese fine arts) 34, January 1987. pp. 25, 30–32.
Vinograd, Richard. Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits 1600–1900. Cambridge: Cambrige University Press, 1992, p. 33, pl. 6.
Weng Wan-go 翁萬戈. Chen Hongshou 陳洪綬 (Chen Hongshou: His life and art). vol. 2, Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1997, pp. 50–53, cat. no. 14.
Toda Teisuke 戶田禎佑, and Ogawa Hiromitsu 小川祐充, eds. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings: vol.1: American and Canadian Collections) 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1998, p. 22, cat. no. A1-185.
"Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1999–2000." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58, no. 2 (Fall 2000). p. 75.
Nelson, Susan E. "The Thing in the Cup: Pictures and Tales of a Drunken Poet." Oriental Art 46, no. 4 (2000). p. 53, fig. 7.
Hearn, Maxwell K. "Modern Chinese Painting, 1860–1980: Selections from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 3 (Winter 2001). p. 13, fig. 7.
Assistant Research Curator Shi-yee Liu outlines the technique and emotional content found in a calligraphy album by Chen Hongshou currently featured in the exhibition Out of Character.
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