元　錢選　王羲之觀鵝圖　卷|Wang Xizhi watching geese

Qian Xuan

ca. 1295 · Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper · Asian Art

After the fall of Hangzhou, the Southern Song capital, in 1276, the artist Qian Xuan chose to live as an yimin, a “leftover subject” of the dynasty. Painted in his deliberately primitive “blue-and-green” style, this handscroll illustrates the story of Wang Xizhi ( 303 – 361), the calligraphy master of legendary fame and a practitioner of Daoist alchemy, who was said to derive inspiration from natural forms such as the graceful neck movements of geese. In creating a dreamlike evocation of antiquity, the artist prevented a realistic reading of his picture space as a way of asserting the disjuncture he felt after the fall of the Song royal house.

Artist

Qian Xuan

Date

ca. 1295

Medium

Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973