Old Man Playing the Guqin Among Plum Blossoms - Wall Scroll
191.7cm
75½"
46.1cm
18"

Approximate Measurements

Artwork Panel: 28.7cm x 136.4cm  ≈  11¼" x 53¾"

Silk/Brocade: 37.1cm x 191.7cm  ≈  14½" x 75½"

Width at Wooden Knobs: 46.1cm  ≈  18"

Old Man Playing the Guqin Among Plum Blossoms - Wall Scroll close up view

Close up view of the plum blossom artwork mounted to this silk brocade wall scroll

香冷隔塵埃

Old Man Playing the Guqin Among Plum Blossoms

This depicts an old man playing a 古琴 in a field of plum blossoms. A 古琴 is romanized as "guqin", but using English rules, you should pronounce it like "goo chin". This is a small Chinese zither with seven strings (not to be confused with a 古箏 or guzheng which has 21 strings). The guqin is more portable and the perfect musical instrument to carry into a plum orchard for some solitary playing.

The Chinese title of this artwork is part of a poem about the plum blossoms. The rest of the Chinese characters indicate the year painted (2010) and the artist's signature (Wen Hua).


About the artist...

The artist's name is ??? (Wang Wen-Hua) who lives in the Jinan area of Shandong Province in Northern China. He specializes in traditional figure paintings and subjects like this (especially Buddhism and philosophy-related themes).


About the Art

This was painted on Chinese xuan paper (often incorrectly called "rice paper"). The artist used watercolors throughout.

After buying this from the artist in Jinan, I rolled it up in a tube, and put it in my backpack. I then took the 5-hour-train ride back to our workshop in Beijing. At the workshop, it was laminated to more sheets of xuan paper and silk brocade was added in the process of building this handmade wall scroll. See more about building handmade wall scrolls