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Start at the stream and the bare tree at the bottom, pass the low wall and the thatched gate, and climb through the tall trees to the two friends in the upper hall.
Wen Zhengming painted this in 1543 for his friend Liu Lin, who had retired from government at seventy but still had no house suited to his new life. Wen’s note says the building was not finished, so he composed a poem and sketched the idea in advance, for Liu to hang beside him one day. Shut off from the world by a stream and a low wall, two friends sit together in a two-story hall raised in a tall grove.
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper · Image: 37 1/2 x 18 in. (95.3 x 45.7 cm · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Chinese painting: Ming
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Living Aloft
- Artist
- Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470–1559)
- Date
- 1543
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 37 1/2 x 18 in. (95.3 x 45.7 cm) Overall with mounting: 82 1/8 x 25 1/4 in. (208.6 x 64.1 cm) Overall with knobs: 82 1/8 x 29 5/8 in. (208.6 x 75.2 cm)
- Credit line
- Gift of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill, in honor of Wen C. Fong, 2015
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1470–1559
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.