Paintings after Ancient Masters1598–1652 · Study 1979.27

Context from the museum

The twenty paintings in this double album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not found in the other albums from the latter part of his career. His late works are wonderful summations of Chen's peculiar and quirky art—archaistic, hyper-refined—but without accompanying shallowness or sentimentality. His figures and landscapes in the late albums are miniaturized, not unlike the small Chinese gardens, or the carefully selected small table rocks or old roots used for contemplation to see the world in miniature. This loss of scale is quite deliberate and reflects the psychological situation of a depressed class like the Ming loyalist officials and scholars, deprived of their integrity and honor, and forced to lead a diminished and restricted existence.

Museum description reproduced from its CC0 open-access record. Read the original catalog entry.

A detail to notice

Chen Hongshou made this double album with twenty paintings for a friend, Lin Zhongqing.

Observation supplied by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Read the dimensions before the image

The selected sheet measurement for Paintings after Ancient Masters is 23.7 cm wide and 24.2 cm high, equivalent to approximately 9.3 × 9.5 inches. Dividing width by height gives a format ratio of 0.98:1. The rectangular bounding area is 0.06 square meters; it describes the measured footprint, not the amount of paint or the monetary value.

On an illustrative 300 cm wall, the recorded width occupies 7.9% of the span before adding a frame. A centered placement leaves approximately 138.2 cm on each side before adding a frame. These are calculations by Physical Art For Crypto using museum measurements. They are not the museum’s display recommendations.

Questions to bring to your own collection

With Paintings after Ancient Masters in view, identify one feature you can point to, then distinguish what the museum records from your personal response. Keep its medium, Double album with twenty-two leaves; ink or ink and color on silk, in your notes when comparing contemporary works.

• Which part of this near-square composition catches your eye first?
• Would a 23.7 cm width still suit the space after allowing for furniture and a frame?
• What surface detail would you need to see in person or in a close photograph?