Portrait of An Qi (1715): Art, History and Details

Portrait of An Qi (1715) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Wang Hui (Chinese, 1632–1717); Tu Luo (Chinese, active c. 1715); Yang Jin (Chinese, 1644–1728).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An Qi, the subject of the portrait, was a second-generation salt merchant from Korea. He used part of his wealth to collect art. At the time this painting was commissioned, An was less than 40 years old. He is represented as a Daoist recluse in nature, informally dressed with attributes such as books and a wrapped guqin instrument, a portrait convention for literati-scholars since the Six Dynasties period (220–589 CE). The local Taihu rock, banana plants, and crane suggest a southern garden and a life in seclusion. An’s portrait is evidence of merchants aspiring to the scholar-official class. According to the inscription, this painting was the joint effort of three men, the eldest and most famous was Wang Hui. While the garden setting is homogenous in style, it contrasts with the application of opaque pigments and shading employed for the depiction of An Qi’s face.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of An Qi
• Date: 1715
• Creator attribution: Wang Hui (Chinese, 1632–1717); Tu Luo (Chinese, active c. 1715); Yang Jin (Chinese, 1644–1728)
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 122 x 53.6 cm (48 1/16 x 21 1/8 in.); Overall: 259.7 x 80.1 cm (102 1/4 x 31 9/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1971.17

A detail from the museum

Seven of An Qi's close friends wrote poetic inscriptions on the silk brocade mount around his portrait.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ōmura, Seigai 大村西崖 and Ōmura Kidō 大村文夫. Chūgoku meigashū. 8 [中国名画集. 第8冊 = Collection of famous Chinese paintings]. Tōkyō: Ryūbunshokyoku, 1945.
• Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956.
• Guo, Weiqu 郭味蕖. Song Yuan Ming Qing shu hua jia nian biao 宋元明清書畫家年表. Beijing: Zhongguo gu dian yi shu chu ban she, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.