Flowering Crab Apple

Shen Zhou’s “Flowering Crab Apple” is a hanging scroll from 1500. Ink on paper, it exemplifies Ming dynasty style. The scroll is 523 years old.

The painting depicts a delicate, flowering crab apple branch. Shen Zhou used fine brushwork, characteristic of his individualist approach.

Shen Zhou was part of the Wu School of Chinese art. He retired from public life to care for his widowed mother and focus on painting.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.101

https://oolf.net/open-art/zhou-flowering-crab-apple-1500/