The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 26, 2025

Plum Blossoms

probably 1739

Wang Shishen

(Chinese, 1686–1759)
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Painting: 144.4 x 75.7 cm (56 7/8 x 29 13/16 in.); Overall: 238 x 89.1 cm (93 11/16 x 35 1/16 in.)
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.366
Location: Not on view

Description

A native of Anhui province, Wang Shishen was a professional painter who specialized in plum blossoms. He moved to Yangzhou in the late 1720s to seek patrons. Here, the daring composition of a flowering plum branch is balanced through the addition of four poems. Wang’s poems evoke nostalgia for the forgotten Six Dynasties period and the glorious Sui dynasty, during which the Grand Canal was built while Yangzhou was the southern capital of the empire. Other inscriptions in the upper part of the painting allude to the fact that Wang had developed blindness in one eye, probably at the time he conceived this painting.
  • ?–1985
    The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Ōsaka Shiritsu Bijutsukan [大阪市立美術館 = Osaka Municipal Museum]. Yōshū Hakkai [揚州八怪 = The Eight masters of Yangzhou]. Ōsaka: publisher not identified, 1969. p. 38
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 267, pp. 365–366
  • When Salt was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 12-November 5, 2023).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-July 16, 2003).
    A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    Yōshū Hakkai [揚州八怪 = The Eight masters of Yangzhou]. Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka, Japan (April 26-May 25, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Plum Blossoms|url=false|author=Wang Shishen|year=probably 1739|access-date=26 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.366