One Hundred Butterflies

Artist Ma Quan (Chinese, active early 18th century)

Date1723

MediumHandscroll: ink and colors on silk

Dimensions10 3/4 × 184 3/8 inches (27.3 × 468.3 cm)

CultureChina

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Daisy Yen Wu in memory of Yen Hsiao-fang and Yen Tse-king

Terms

Paintings
Scroll paintings
Handscroll: ink and colors
Animals
Bamboo
Butterflies
Flowers
Grasses
Inscriptions
Insects
Iris
Peonies
Plants
Rock
Vines
Silk
Chinese

Object number79.060.004

Label CopyMa Quan, who was born into a family of artists in Changshu, Jiangsu province, worked as a professional painter and even taught students outside of her own family. She followed in the footsteps of her father, Ma Yuanyu (1669–1722), renowned for plant-and-insect paintings and himself a student of the master plant-and-insect painter Yun Shouping (1633–1690). Ma Quan and her husband, Gong Kehe, also a calligrapher and painter, moved to Beijing to support themselves by their art; after he died, she returned to Changshu. Ma Quan excelled in painting butterflies and flowers; her paintings combine close observation of nature with an admiration for Song dynasty academic traditions. Here she emphasizes the quick, graceful movements of the butterflies in flight in a playful manner that departs from the rather staid renditions of Song painting. The overall subject of butterflies in a flower garden, along with this long handscroll’s individual vignettes and details, communicates auspicious wishes. One hundred butterflies represent the saying, “May the hundred blessings settle here (baifu pianzhen). Butterflies flitting among flowers equates to butterflies in love with flowers (dielianhua), a design popular for weddings and marriage, because it symbolizes joy, love, and good fortune. The many mating pairs of butterflies throughout the painting further convey these sentiments.

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