The Silent Season: Images of Winter in Chinese & Japanese Paintings

Hashimoto Shoka (1813-1879)

“Blossoming Plum in Mist and Moonlight”

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
137.2 x 87.0 cm. (54 x 34 1/4 in.)

Inscription:
“An ancient wrote one hundred poems on the blossoming plum but my paintings of ink plums were
exhausted at fifty, and I am ashamed to be so far behind. Kyo Tatsu.”

Artist’s seals:
Hashimoto Tatsu Azana Taiwa and two others

(see write up below)

Amano Hoko (1824-1894)

“Accumulated Snow over Rivers and Mountains” 1877

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
165.7 x 66.0 cm. (65 1/4 x 26 in.)

Inscription:
“’Accumulated Snow over Rivers and Mountains.’ During the ninth lunar month of the year 1877, painted by Hoko.”

Artist’s seals:
Amano Kitsu in; Kokyo-shi

(see write up below)

Nakabayashi Chikuto (1776-1853)

“Hawk in Winter”

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
192.2 x 57.9 cm. (51 x 22 3/4 in.)

Inscription:
“Painted in emulation of the brush-ideas of Lin I-shan (Lin Liang) by the mountain-recluse Chikuto.”

Artist’s seals:
Seisho no in; Chikuto

(see write up below)

Li Xubai (b. 1940)

“Winter Landscape” 2003

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
248.9 x 88.9 cm. (98 x 35 in.)

Artist’s inscription on left:
“On a winter day during the year 2003, Xubai did this in the Cloud-harking Retreat in Canada.”

Artist’s inscription on right:
“Snow whirls and falls,
This year is already ending.
Jade steps and chiseled balustrades,
Frozen rivers and snowy roads.
Qiang flute sounds leisurely,
Where is my home-town?
Pine trees and cypresses wither last,
They are green as ever.”

Artist’s seals:
Xubai shizhu; Minchong Li Qi; Xu bai; Shushi shengbai; Yipian bingxin zai yuhu

(see write up below)

Luo Jianwu (b. 1944)

“Han Dynasty Cypress” 2003-2011

Horizontal scroll, framed
ink on paper
30.5 x 127.0 cm. (12 x 50 in.)

Inscriptions:
“Pure and odd, old and strange.”
“This cypress of the Han is two thousand years old, while the Republic is only one hundred years old. I took up my brush on this painting at age sixty (sui, i.e. in 2003) and completed in at sixty-eight (sui, i.e. in 2011.) Luo Jianwu. Before my eyes what was pure has withered away.”

Artist’s seals:
Jianwu; Holuo (“The River Luo”)

(see write up below)

Xu Jianguo (b. 1951)

“Morning Waves on the Thames ” 2011

Round-fan shaped painting
Ink on silk
38.5 x 37.8 cm. (15 1/8 x 14 7/8 in.)

Inscription: “The morning waves of the Thames, painted in 2011. Jian Guo.”

Artist’s seal: Xu

(see write up below)

Wang Mansheng (b. 1962)

Snow Cliff #2 2006

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
Ink on paper
137.2 x 68.6 cm. (54 x 27 in.)

Inscribed: “February 2006 – Heavy snowfall from the skies, over two feet wrapped the earth in silver, a magnificent sight. This inspired me to paint a few pieces of realms of glaciers and snow, and record it. Mansheng at Sanrenju [‘Three-person Home’].”

Artist’s seals: Wang Mansheng yin, Yiyang wuqi, Bansheng

(see write up below)

Qiu Mai [Michael Cherney] (born 1969)

“Nature in Bondage to Art: Snow Field on Loess Plateau, Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province” 2011

Photograph in folding fan shape, ink on paper
12.8 x 40.0 cm. (5 x 15 3/4 in.)

(see write up below)