Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Roger Y. K. Hsu, Dr. Daphne T. Hsu, and Dr. Jeffrey T. Hsu in memory of Robert P. Bergman
Album of Calligraphy and Paintings is an artwork by Chinese painter Bian Shoumin, created in the first half of the eighteenth century during the Qing dynasty. The artist, Bian, is one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, a group of artists active during the eighteenth century who rejected traditional painting ideals. Instead, these artists favoured expression and individuality.
The painting’s composition is quite minimalistic, featuring four wild geese swimming in the river, and on top, a bed of reeds swaying along the wind. Wild geese, reeds, and water are all elements Bian Shoumin is known for in his paintings. In the painting, the four geese are engaged in various activities – two are swimming side-by-side, one has its head raised towards the sky with its wings extended, while the remaining geese is feeding in the water with the front part of its body tipped into the water, while its bottom points towards the sky. The activities of the geese adds a sense of liveliness to the simple composition of the painting.
The painting uses the Mogu painting technique, which literally translates to “boneless”. For this technique, ink or colours are applied without outlining, which is thought to highlight the essence of the depicted subject. In the painting, the geese, from their heads to their feathers, are illustrated with ink patches rather than linework, which emphasises dynamism over a precise depiction.
"Album of Calligraphy and Paintings" critically traces the 18th-century Qing China. Bian Shoumin's rejection of academic conventions reflects resistance to artistic orthodoxy. But his individuality was still produced within a literati culture sustained by elite patronage. The geese, rendered through the mogu ("boneless") technique, evoke freedom and natural movement, creating an image of harmony detached from material labour. Such detachment raises questions about whose reality is represented and whose is excluded. The landscape is purified of agricultural work, social conflict, and the labour that shaped the wetlands where such birds existed. The painting, therefore, transforms nature into an aesthetic object for contemplation. The expressive brushwork reflects the ideological privilege of the scholar-artist, whose ability to romanticise nature depended upon social conditions secured through hierarchical economic relations.
