Banana Plants

Min Zhen’s ‘Banana Plants’ is an album leaf painted in ink on paper. Completed in 1788, it belongs to the Qing dynasty period. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

Min Zhen was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi, but spent most of his life in Hubei. He was known for painting human figures and occasionally used finger painting techniques.

The Nanfang caomu zhuang, a 4th-century Chinese text, is one of the oldest works on subtropical botany and includes descriptions of plants like jasmine and black pepper.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.71.11

https://oolf.net/open-art/zhen-banana-plants-1788/