Object Details
Artist
Gu Luo
Date
late 18th or early 19th century
Medium
Hanging scroll: ink and colors on silk
Dimensions
Image: 49 1/8 × 17 1/8 inches (124.8 × 43.5 cm)
Overall (including width of scroll knobs): 87 3/4 × 28 inches (222.9 × 71.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Rodney P. Henricksen
Object
Number
2002.173.003
Gu Luo was from Hangzhou, a city conscious of its artistic past, but he also worked in Shanghai duri(…)
Gu Luo was from Hangzhou, a city conscious of its artistic past, but he also worked in Shanghai during the decades before the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion devastated China’s cities and economy. In this painting, a young man stands quietly by a large rock holding a square, golden box filled with small pills or stones. He gestures with his treasure toward the round window that reveals a subdued and wistful woman clad in a red robe and seated at a desk. The specific subject has not been identified, but seems to illustrate a scene from popular literature. A large and increasingly literate population read and appreciated a wide range of popular novels and short stories, for which artists such as Gu provided visual records.
