Worthy Friends of Winter

Artist Zhang Xiong (Chinese, 1803 - 1886)

Dateca. 1880

MediumHanging scroll; ink and color on paper

DimensionsOverall (Includes rollers): 107 × 28 × 1 1/2 inches (271.78 × 71.12 × 3.81 cm)
Mount: 107 × 24 inches (271.78 × 60.96 cm)
Image: 65 3/8 × 18 1/8 inches (166 × 46 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: the Asian Art Acquisition Fund in memory of Laurence Sickman

Object number2023.43

Signed歲寒益友。鴛湖張熊子祥甫寫，時年七十又七。Worthy Friends of Winter. Painted by Zhang Xiong, called Zixiang, of Yuanhu, at the age of Seventy-seven.

Inscribed歲寒益友。鴛湖張熊子祥甫寫，時年七十又七。Worthy Friends of Winter. Painted by Zhang Xiong, called Zixiang, of Yuanhu, at the age of seventy-seven.

MarkingsSeal：子祥書畫【白文方印】Painting and calligraphy of Zixiang

On View

Not on view

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThe painting features a rubbing image of bronze gui vessel, along with its inscription and a small bell, on the lower half of the composition. Above the rubbing of bronze is a painted bouquet of colorful winter botanies, including pines, wintersweets, and heavenly bamboo (nandina). The artist’s signature, inscription, and a square seal are on the top left.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Art of Ink Rubbings: Impressions of Chinese Culture, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 20, 2024–February 2, 2025, no cat.

Gallery Label

Zhang Xiong combines the composite ink rubbing (quanxingta) of a bronze vessel with a painted image of winter flora. Instead of painting, his use of rubbing to represent the vessel conveys a message—he is not just seeing but also feeling and touching the ritual vessel, which is an important practice of traditional connoisseurship. The ancient bronze enhances the composition’s message of endurance and friendship in times of hardship, derived from the assemblage of pines, wintersweets, and heavenly bamboo (nandina).

Provenance

Jung Ying Tsao 曹仲英 (pinyin: Zhongying Cao, 8/15/1929–2/26/2011); San Francisco, until 2011.

Jung Ying Tsao to his family 2011–2023;

Purchased from Bonhams & Butterfield by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023.

Published References

Wan Qingli and Zhao Li eds, Jin xiandai Zhongguo huihua jicui: Caoshi Mozhai cang 近現代中國繪畫集萃: 曹氏默齋藏 / 中華美術基金會編; 主編萬青屴;副主編趙力vol 1. Shanghai: Shanghai Huihua Chubanshe, 2010, no 53, pp 220-223.

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