Violets and Mosquito
Unidentified maker, Chinese, 1644 - 1911
Unknown Chinese, Chinese
Qing Dynasty, Qian-long Period, 1736-1795
Album leaf; colored inks and wash on silk
Mount: 13 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (35.2 × 35.2 cm)
Image: 10 1/4 × 10 5/8 in. (26 × 27 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Dorothy Marion Levitt Beskind and D. Herbert Beskind, Class of 1936
P.958.344.4
Geography
Place Made: China, East Asia, Asia
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Watercolor
Research Area
Watercolor
Not on view
Inscriptions
Not signed; left, circular red colophon and square red colophon.
Label
Beginning in the 19th century, Chinese artists portrayed natural subjects through close observation in a manner inspired by Western art. In this painting, the detailed depiction of the violet’s leaves, petal patterns, and color gradation suggest that the artist paid close attention to capturing actual features of the flowers, possibly observed in bloom. The artist paired the flowers with a meticulously rendered mosquito. While mosquitos are often depicted in Chinese traditional literature as symbols of harm, the artist here focuses instead on its external characteristics, transitioning it to a subject worthy of close artistic observation.
From the 2024 exhibition Attitude of Coexistence: Non-Humans in East Asian Art, curated by Haely Chang, Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art
Course History
SART 25, Painting I, Enrico Riley, Fall 2014
SART 31, Painting II, Enrico Riley, Winter 2015
SART 25.01, Painting I, Viktor Witkowski, Winter 2022
SART 25.02, Painting I, Viktor Witkowski, Winter 2022
Art History 34.02, Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages 62.03, Chinese Painting, Ziliang (Alex) Liu, Spring 2023
Exhibition History
Attitude of Coexistence: Non-humans in East Asian Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 5-June 29, 2025.
Chinese Art from the College Collection, Barrows Print Room, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 30-September 4, 1978.
Provenance
Dorothy Marion Levitt Beskind (1917-2014) and David Herbert Beskind (1915-2015), Class of 1936, New York, New York; given to present collection, 1958.
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