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Your galleryFlowering Crab Apple
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Follow the branch from its cut end at the bottom as it bends upward in a slight S, then look at the petals drawn in fine ink outlines.
On a spring day in 1500, visiting a monks’ residence where the crab apples were in full bloom, Shen Zhou was asked for a painting by a fellow guest, Lu Ruqi, and made this one quickly, at seventy-four. He shows a single broken-off branch rather than the whole tree, outlining each petal in pure ink, while his poem praises blossoms rich in color but sparing of scent.
hanging scroll; ink on paper · Painting: 87 x 28.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Chinese painting: Ming
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Flowering Crab Apple
- Artist
- Shen Zhou (Chinese, 1427–1509)
- Date
- 1500
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 87 x 28.5 cm (34 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 238.5 x 52.5 cm (93 7/8 x 20 11/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1427–1509
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.