Ch'ien Hsuan

Original: Handscroll, ink and colors on paper, 26.3 x 44.3 cm.

This painting depicts a branch of a peach tree bearing two peaches. A squirrel makes his way along the branch. The painting is not signed, but there are two artist's seals, Shun Chu and Han Mo Yu Hsi. The colophon paper bears an inscription by Ou Ta-jen.

Ch'ien HsUan (tzu Shun-chu, hao Sun-feng, Ch'ing-chu lao-jen, Hsi-lan-weng) was from Wu-hsing in Chekiang. He was liberal in temperament and noble in spirit. After the fall of the Sung he went into retirement and would not serve the alien Mongol government. Because of his talents in poetry, painting, and calligraphy, Ch'ien Hsuan was the leader of the "Eight Eminents of Wu-hsing." In landscape, bird-and-flower and figure paintings, he took the ancients as his models.