Flowers and Birds in an Autumn Setting
Mount: 120 × 46 inches (304.8 × 116.84 cm)
Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, OK, 1947.
Early Birds, Junior Art Gallery, Louisville, KY., February 23-mid-April, 1954.
Five-Year Favorites, Junior Art Gallery, Louisville, KY. October 1-December 15, 1955.
Autumn is a charming season to cuddle with someone. In this painting, swans and magpies contentedly court in a garden with glowing flowers of hibiscus and chrysanthemums. The message is simple: wed for a happy life and have children.
Bird-and-flower paintings such as this have been a favored subject of Chinese artists for a thousand years. In this painting style, the artist captures the subjects realistically, evokes a poetic feeling and conveys the symbolic meanings of love and family.
Liu Li Ch’ang, Peiping;
Ju Ku Chai;
Purchased from Ju Ku Chai through Laurence Sickman for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.
Wai-Kam Ho, et al., Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. (The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, c1980), 148-149, no. 125.
