Palace Women and Children Celebrating the New Year
date: label: Date
content: 15th century
label: Period
content: Ming dynasty
name: label: Artist
content: Formerly attributed to Yan Liben (ca. 600-674)
notes: label: Label
content: The courtyard of this large two-storied building is occupied by a group of elegantly attired palace ladies surrounding two small boys, probably young princes, who cover their ears in anticipation as one of the women kneels to light a firecracker. A third boy looks on from a nearby room, while a small group of children and servants approach the entrance gate with a large brocade-covered ball. Other women sit at a table on the ground floor of the building as a serving girl affixes a portrait of Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller, on the wall. The figure of Zhong Kui is associated with both the Chinese new year and the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, when his image was commonly hung in houses to ward off evil influences. Judging from the blossoming plums and camellias, both winter plants, and the barren branches of the other trees, the occasion being celebrated in this painting is the new year.
label: Label
content: An old Ming dynasty (1368-1644) title slip, currently mounted on the back of the panel, attributes this painting to the Tang artist Yan Liben (600-674), who was both a court painter and palace architect. However, based on its subject and composition, this attribution is clearly anachronistic, and the painting is probably a mid-Ming copy of a work originally produced at the imperial academy during the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279).
label: Provenance
content: To 1916
label: Provenance
content: Wang Jiantang, Shanghai to 1916 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1916 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wang Jiantang in 1916 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: The Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, L. 1079, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Looking Out, Looking In: Art in Late Imperial China (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)
label: Exhibition History
content: Luxury and Luminosity: Visual Culture and the Ming Court (July 3, 2004 to June 26, 2005)
label: Exhibition History
content: Palaces and Pavilions: Grand Architecture in Chinese Painting (September 29, 2002 to March 30, 2003)
label: Exhibition History
content: In Human Form: Images of the Secular and Divine in Chinese Painting (January 31, 1996 to January 7, 1997)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Wang Jiantang 王鑑堂 (late 19th-early 20th century) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: China
topic: label: Topic
content: Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)
label: Topic
content: new year
label: Topic
content: festival
label: Topic
content: child
label: Topic
content: woman
label: Topic
content: celebration
label: Topic
content: Zhong Kui
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1916.403
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 160.3 x 106.2 cm (63 1/8 x 41 13/16 in)