Artist:Tang Guang (Chinese, ca. 1670–1690)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions:Image: 48 1/2 × 22 7/8 in. (123.2 × 58.1 cm)
Overall with mounting: 88 5/8 × 30 1/2 in. (225.1 × 77.5 cm)
Overall with knobs: 88 5/8 × 34 1/4 in. (225.1 × 87 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill, 2015
Accession Number:2017.327.3
This large hanging scroll painting places the viewer at the edge of a lotus pond at the height of summer. Lotus blossoms stretch skyward from the water on their improbably thin stems, some in full bloom, some still tightly wrapped. Around them, enormous, heavy green lotus leaves provide a counterpoint to the pinks and reds of the blossoms. In the clear water beneath the flowers, a school of fish darts amid water grasses beneath lily pads.
Tang Guang’s name is little recorded in Chinese painting history, but this work reveals that he was a sensitive practitioner of the Piling School manner of flower painting, named for Tang’s hometown (also known as Changzhou). Painters in Changzhou were known for closely cropped vignettes of meticulously painted flowers, especially lotus blossoms, from at least the thirteenth century. In the seventeenth century, the painters Yun Shouping (1633–1690) and Jiang Tingxi (1669–1732) reinvigorated this tradition, adding more volumetric modeling to the flowers to achieve a more three-dimensional effect. Tang Guang seems to have been aware of this new manner. The carefully graded application of pink on his lotuses reveals an interest in volumetric modeling that suggests knowledge of the Yun Shouping and possibly Jiang Tingxi. But his composition, which places the viewer low enough to feel immersed in the lotuses, is pure traditional Piling School.