Immortals Celebrating a Birthday

Indianapolis Museum of Art: Highlights of the Collection (2005)

The long, simple drape of ancient fashions and the exaggerated facial features, clarity of forms, and smooth coloring allude to antique painting styles, giving this image an iconic quality. The cross-eyed male servant seems almost bored as he stands playfully holding a dragon-headed staff that compresses his nose and lips. The host-the one ladling wine-and the two guests are immortals, who may well parallel the people mentioned in the inscription on the painting: the birthday celebrant; the brother who commissioned the painting; and the painter, Chen Hongshou.

One of the leading artists of the late Ming dynasty, Chen is among the great figure painters in the history of Chinese painting. This richly detailed painting is one of his finest works and illustrates the peak of his mature style. Elsewhere in his inscription, Chen boldly declares his allegiance to the fallen Ming dynasty and hints at the chaotic times that followed the conquest by the northern Manchus, who established the last dynasty, called the Qing, which ended in 1911.

This work is from a collection of twenty-eight paintings acquired by the IMA in 2004. The collection spans almost four hundred years, with particular emphasis on the mid-1600s, when China underwent the profound political shift from the native Ming dynasty to the Qing.

In late summer of 1649, it will be the fortieth birthday of Maocai, my venerable elder brother. His younger brother, Maoqi, requested a painting to be sent as a birthday gift. I will save the birthday wine until peace comes. . . .
-Inscription by Chen Hongshou, 1649

Taiwan collector, K. S. Wong, Hong Kong, China; James Freeman 19 June 1983; (Henry Harrison, Lincoln, Massachusetts); purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2004.