Plum Blossoms and Rocks

The most arresting feature of the exquisitely colored? "Plum Blossoms and Rock" is the red-blossomed, delicately swaying bough—the painter's skill in concealing the brush-tip and his masterful control of stroke speed and technique lend weight and substance to the subjects, a classic example of Chinese painting's "bone method."? Behind the red-blossomed tree is a rock, limned with a pale wash, and farther in the distance, green plum blossoms. Overall, the work imparts an air of elegance, simplicity and calm, manifesting the plum blossom's vitality in the depths of winter and stone's sturdy grandeur. Inscription: "The flowers' beauty no less than the beauty of "Xing 刑" and "Yin 尹" (two imperial concubines favored by the Han Wudi emperor); (viewing the flowers ) is like seeing those storied beauties, freshly made-up, in the Han palace in the early morning. Wu Chang-shuo, first month of the lunar new-year, Spring, 1916, Wu Chang-shuo. Second seal: Chang-shuo, Banri Cun."