Three Friends of Winter

Zhao Qi, also known as Zhao Yunhe, was a disciple of Wu Changshuo (1844–1927), the foremost master of the Shanghai school, whose painting style derived from traditional calligraphic techniques and combined refined artistry with overall forcefulness. In this painting Zhao blends bright colors and sharp contrasts with bold and simple brushstrokes to create a direct and expressive form of pine tree, bamboo, and plum blossom. The distinctiveness of this “Wu-style” interpretation of the so-called “Three Friends of Winter” is evident by comparison with similar traditional literati-style paintings. The auspicious lingzhi fungus depicted at the bottom of the painting, which is also mentioned in Zhao’s inscription, reinforces this style by seeming to appropriate early twentieth-century urban aesthetics. (“Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation in East Asian Art,” curated by Cornell PhD student Yuhua Ding under the supervision of Ellen Avril and presented at the Johnson Museum January 23-June 12, 2016)