Playing the Flute

Description A solitary man sits on gnarled roots and plays the flute. Contrary to first impressions, this is not an uninhabitable place but a retreat of some sort; at the upper right there is a wall and a tall fence. Beyond the man, a cliff-face is rendered primarily by the white of the paper.

Provenance Xu Hongting [Hsü Hung-t'ing] [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Liu Song-bu [Liu Sung-pu], Shanghai [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, China Pavilion, 1915 [no. 285]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1915, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1915