Artist: Xugu (1821-1896)

Dimensions:height: 127.5cm, width: 59cm

Ink on paper,hanging scroll

It is the liking of literati and scholar-bureaucrats to pick a few favorable flowers and put them leisurely into a vase as offerings to the study. The Painting of Simple Offerings presents us with just such a sentiment. The branches of plum and camellia flowers are put into two vases respectively, with several flowers outside the vases. The painting is creative and elegant. The application of brush on the branches is special, concise and vigorous, depicting the wilt or viridity of them. The plum flowers are sketched with dry ink and the camellia flowers mainly stippled with red color; together with the leaves as foils, all are free and vivid, clear and elegant. The painting is a fine work of Xugu that has been handed down.

Xugu (1821-1896) was a monk. He was originally named Huairen with the family name Zhu, and studio name Juanhe. He was born in Huizhou (now Xi County in Anhui Province). He was good at painting landscapes, flowers, vegetables, fruits, birds and worms, especially squirrels and golden fish with broken ink, creating natural and interesting works. He was also accomplished in poetry, calligraphy and portrait. He is a representative painter of the “Shanghai School”.