id: 149109 accession number: 1977.4 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.4 updated: 2025-09-23 11:26:56.249000 Flowers of Four Seasons, with Poems, 1531. Wang Guxiang (Chinese, 1501–1568). Handscroll; ink and light color on silk; painting only: 24 x 545 cm (9 7/16 x 214 9/16 in.); overall: 24 x 547.5 cm (9 7/16 x 215 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1977.4 title: Flowers of Four Seasons, with Poems title in original language: 四時花卉 series: series in original language: creation date: 1531 creation date earliest: 1531 creation date latest: 1531 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) technique: handscroll; ink and light color on silk department: Chinese Art collection: ASIAN - Handscroll type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Wang Guxiang (Chinese, 1501–1568) - artist --- measurements: Painting only: 24 x 545 cm (9 7/16 x 214 9/16 in.); Overall: 24 x 547.5 cm (9 7/16 x 215 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Artist's inscription, signature, and 15 seals. Ink Orchids. Sewn as pendants for the man of worth, swaying quiety, fragrance in the valley. [seal] Hsiao-chu ts'un Peony. Wiping his face, the young gentleman Ho [Ho Yen of Wei, Three Kingdoms] appears to have been powdered. His previous life was the perfume-stealing Han Shou [of Chin, 265–419 CE], the fragrance still lingers. [seal] Ts'un-wu chai. Flowering Crab Apple, New Bamboo. Shao-lin [Du Fu, 712–770] had to put down his brush. [Flowering Crab Apple]. Yü-k'o [Wen T'ung, d. 1079) in vain wrote poems about [Bamboo]. [seal] Yu-shih. Lotus Flowers. When she turns her head, half-hidden by a fan, and casts a glance, all the beautiful women become colorless. [seal] K'ang yüeh huai. Loquat. Ripeness in summer. [seal] Lu-chih. Pomegranate Flower. Whenever I remember you I will send my thoughts, but where have you gone--the [skirt] of pomegranate red? [seal] Wu-ho Sheng. Day Lily. Plant the day lily to forget sorrow. [seal] Yu-shih. Chrysanthemum. The untrammelled joy at the eastern fence. [seal] Lu-chih. Begonia. Comparing it to the beauties of Spring, and spreading them out as trimming for the stone steps. [seal] Yu-shih. Hibiscus. In recent years I have always enjoyed looking at flowers; instead of dark red I preferred pink ones. [seal] Jen-sheng i-lou. Narcissus, Camellia. The jade girdle left behind at Lo River. [Narcissus]. The precious pearls glitter before Spring. [Camellia]. [seal] Lu-chih. Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica). A single branch in the wintry season. [seal] K'ang yüeh huai. Plum. Fragrant snow in the Lo-fou Mountains. [seal] Ts'un-wu chai. In the eleventh lunar month of the hsin-mao year of the Jiaqing era [1531], [I] imitated the boneless style of Yüan masters in sketching from life. Guxiang [seals] Yu-shih; Lu-chih. Translated by Wai-kam Ho/Lingyun Shih Liu (1980) translation: remark: inscription: 2 colophons and 23 additional seals: 1 colophon dated 1632, and 2 seals of Li Jih-hua [Li Rihua] 李日華 (1565–1635); 1 colophon and 2 seals of Xiang Shengmo 項聖謨 (1597–1658); 3 seals of Liang Qingbiao 梁清標 (1620–1691); 6 seals of the Jiaqing 嘉慶 emperor (r. 1796–1820); 9 seals of Ch'eng Ch'i [Cheng Qi] 程琦 (1911–1988) translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1977 opening date: 1977-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). title: Power and Possession: Chinese Calligraphy and Inscribed Objects – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c opening date: 2018-08-13T04:00:00 Power and Possession: Chinese Calligraphy and Inscribed Objects – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 13, 2018-February 3, 2019). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': "Urban Council and the Min Chiu Society, Ming and Ch'ing. City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, (June 12-July 12, 1970).", 'opening_date': '1970-06-12T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Main Asian Gallery Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 10-April 7, 2004).', 'opening_date': '2004-03-10T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE (Cheng Qi [Ch'eng Ch'i] 程琦 [1911–1988], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?–1977 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Mi dian zhu lin shi qu bao ji. San bian 秘殿珠林石渠寶笈. 三編. Taipei: National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院, 1969. Facsimile reprint of original manuscript dated 1816. page number: pp. 1976, 1977 url: Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1934. page number: vol. I, 63(a) url: Chen, Rentao 陳仁濤. An annotated list of lost calligraphy and painting from the (Qing) Palace Collection = 故宮已佚書畫目校注. Hong Kong: 統營公司: 東南書局, 1956. page number: p. 22(a) url: Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. The Nature and Significance of the Collection of Liang Ch'ing-Piao. Taipei, Taiwan: Chung-hua ming-kuo, 1960. page number: Mentioned: p. 145, no. 251 url: Min qiu jing she 敏求精舍 and Hong Kong Museum of Art 博物美術館. Ming Qing hui hua zhan lan [明清繪畫展覽 = Exhibition of paintings of the Ming & Ching periods, jointly presented by the Urban Council & the Min Chiu society]. Hong Kong: Bo wu mei shu guan, 1970. page number: cat. no. 16 url: Cheng, Qi 程琦. Catalogue of calligraphy and painting in the author's collection = 萱暉堂書畫錄. Hong Kong: Xuanhuitang 萱暉堂, 1972. page number: pp. 77(b)–78(a) url: Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat no. 180, pp. 229–230 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.4/1977.4_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.4/1977.4_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.4/1977.4_full.tif