Shrimp and Sweet Flag

Details

QI BAISHI (1863-1957)
Shrimp and Sweet Flag
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
52 ½ x 13 in. (133.5 x 33 cm.)
Inscribed and signed with one seal of the artist

Provenance

Acquired in Asia by Else Melhuus (1917-2010), wife of Ivar Melhuus (1913-1979), Norwegian Consul in Hong Kong 1954-1959.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Qi Baishi's shrimp and sweet flag are executed in rapid, cursive strokes. Their rhythm and form combines with subtly varied ink tones to create a calligraphic pictorial structure, typical of his mature work. The pictorial composition seamlessly integrates with Qi's inscription of an original verse. The scroll combines poetry, calligraphy and painting within a single object, demonstrating his fluency in the key cultural practices esteemed by China's historic scholar artists.

This painting was produced for duanwu jie, commonly know as the Dragon Boat festival in English. As Qi's verse notes, sweet flag, a flowering water plant, is hung on doorways during this season to ward off evil.

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