清/現代　齊白石　垂柳圖　軸|Weeping Willow

Qi Baishi

ca. 1937 · Hanging scroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

This painting, executed shortly after the Japanese occupied Beijing in 1937, makes a point about life under foreign occupation, as Qi makes clear in his inscription: Do not criticize Dao [Yuanming's] family for being weak, for lacking courage. There are times that willow branches must learn to bend [with the wind]. (Wen Fong, trans., Between Two Cultures: Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001], p. 163)

Artist

Qi Baishi

Date

ca. 1937

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986