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Saying Farewell at Xunyang

Original Language Title明 仇英 潯陽送別
Artist Qiu Ying 仇英 (Chinese, 1494 - 1552)
DateMing dynasty (1368-1644)
MediumHandscroll; ink and full color on paper
DimensionsImage: 13 1/4 × 157 3/8 inches (33.66 × 399.73 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number46-50
On View
Not on view
Collections
Exhibition History

Chinese Great Painters of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Wildenstein & Co., New York, February-May 1949.Organized by the Asia Institute.

Chinese Art, Indiana University, February 14-March 20, 1968.

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, Nelson-Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, November 7, 1980 – January 4, 1981; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 7 – April 5, 1981; The Asia Society, December 3, 1981 – February 28, 1982; Tokyo National Museum, October 4 – November 17, 1982, no. 164.

Chinese Ming Painting, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 12- August 29, 1993 .

Ming Paintings through the Eyes of Connoisseurs, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, January 20- March 4, 2001.

Masterpieces of Chinese Painting, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, October 26, 2013- January 19, 2014. no. 61.

Gallery Label

This painting illustrates the poem “The Lute Song (Pipa xing)” by Bai Juyi, written when he was demoted from his metropolitan post in 816 C.E. In the poem, Bai bids farewell to a friend at a boat party near the riverbank at Xunyang in Southern China. While drinking under the moonlight, the party hears lively music played on a pipa (Chinese lute) and invites the musician to join the festivities. After playing a song, the musician reveals her story of losing favor from the capital, which wins Bai’s empathy toward her.

 

The blue and green landscape evokes an air of antiquity. Its bright, thick pigments suggest the painting may have been made for a well-to-do client with whom Qiu Ying was associated.
Provenance

Jean-Pierre Dubosc;

Purchased from Jean-Pierre Dubosc through Laurence Sickman by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1946.

Published References

Jean-Pierre Dubosc, Great Chinese Painters of the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties. Exh. Cat.: Wildenstien Galleries, New York (March 11 – April 2, 1949), 36-37, no. 20.

Laurence Sickman, and Alexander Soper, The Art and Architecture of China, The Pelican History of Art, ed. Nikolaus Pevsner, (Harmondsworth, 1956) , 181-182, pl. 142;3rd. Ed., 1968, pl. 136; paperback ed., 1971, 33,pl. 227.

Les Editions Braun et Cie, Art Chinoise (Paris: n.d.), no (?) 39696 (full- scale color reproduction of a section).

Sherman E., Lee “Ming and Ch’ing Painting”, vol. II, Ars Orientalis (1957), II: 8, figs. 12a, 12b. 

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 204.

Rene Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture (New York: 1959), pl. 54.

Lin Yutan, Imperial Peking (London: 1961), 75.

Capolavori nei Secoli, no. 29, (Milano:  June 9, 1962), new. Ed., no. 39, p. 287.

University of Indian, March, 1968 (loan).

Enciclopedia del Sapere, 29: 312/029 (Milano: 1968) 1027, 43.

One Thousand years of Chinese painting, T’ang to Ch’ing ( 800-1800) An exhibition of fifty representative works borrowed from major American collections, Catalog by Theodore Bowie. Indiana University Art Museum, Fe. 14- March 31, 1968, catalog, no. 33 (no. illus)

The Horizon book of the Arts of China. By the Editors of Horizon Magazine (New York: 1969), 162-163.

Terukazu Akiyama, et al., eds. Chugoku bijutsu (Chinese art in Western collections), (Tokyo: 1973) Vol. II, Kaiga, ed. By Kei Suzuki and Teisuke Toda, 1973, II: 221, 222, pl. 14-15.

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 64.

James Cahill, Parting at the Shores: Chinese Painting of The Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580 (New York, Tokyo: 1978), 209-210, pl. 9.  

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), 201-203, no. 164, Color Plate VI.

“Eight Dynasties… ”, Orientations (May 1981): 24.

Laurence Sickman “Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Great Tradition in Chinese Painting”, Arts of Asia, Jan.- Feb. 881Li, C.t. , Asia, (New York:  Dec. 1981), 36-37,  147.

Kojibutsu, no. 64, Tokyo, Oct., 1982, (p. 42) color. Rogers, Howard,” Chinese Paintings” (1), trans. Y. Shimizu, 45-61.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 325, Color plate 68.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 361, fig. 240.

Zhang Hongxing, Masterpieces of Chinese Painting, Victoria and Albert Museum, (New York: V& A Publishing, 2013), 36, 47, 76,234, 235, 260,260-1.no. 61.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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