Chronology Entry
Year
1923
Text
In March and April Marianne Moore visited and revisited the Exhibition of Chinese paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, New York, whose dragons, horses, buffaloes, and insects gave her a lesson on how seriously and artist might go about portraying nonhumans.
Letter from Marianne Moore to John Warner Moore ; March 25, 1923.
Tuesday we went to the Metropolitan with Mr. Wheeler to see the Chinese paintings. We pored over them, read the descriptions and made a complete survey of the collection. The animals were beautiful, a dragon appearing in a cloud, horses, water buffaloes and insects. There is a white falcon which as Mr. Wheeler said somewhat overrating it : 'it's like hammered silver'.
Letter from Marianne Moore to John Warner Moore ; April 8, 1923.
Yesterday we called on Mr. Faggi's friend, Miss Rubenstein, whom he asked us to call on about Christmas time. She was out and as she lives near the museum, we went over to look again at the Chinese paintings, stopping first to see the armor. One of the attendants took charge of us and discanted on history, armor making, the relative size of collections, the silk flags hanging from the roof and we were much benefitted.
Letter from Marianne Moore to Bryher ; May 5, 1923.
We have seen a loan exhibition of very old Chinese paintings at the Metropolitan, which would I think, interest you ; one of 'spirited horses' – a series of white horses with scarlet pompoms and smoky manes and tails ; one of a dragon in the clouds, concealed but for a few claws ; Enjoying the Breeze in a Fishing-Boat which made me think of the Oxford punt, and one of supremely delicate brush work called Herd Boys Returning Home in which two elderly peasants are mounted on water oxen upon whose skin whorls are indicated with minute brush strokes in a darker colour so blended as to be imperceptible except upon scrutiny. We also examined the manuscript of a poem on Wang Wei : 'He took ten days to paint a river and five days a rock. A masterpiece cannot be4 produced in haste or by pressure. It was after bestowing such pains as these that Wang Tsai allowed his work to remain. Powerful is the painting of the Fang Hu mountains of the Kuen Lun Range, and high it is hung on the spotless wall in the lofty hall of your mansion'. Since seeing the pictures, my only diversion has been the circus.
Letter from Marianne Moore to John Warner Moore ; March 25, 1923.
Tuesday we went to the Metropolitan with Mr. Wheeler to see the Chinese paintings. We pored over them, read the descriptions and made a complete survey of the collection. The animals were beautiful, a dragon appearing in a cloud, horses, water buffaloes and insects. There is a white falcon which as Mr. Wheeler said somewhat overrating it : 'it's like hammered silver'.
Letter from Marianne Moore to John Warner Moore ; April 8, 1923.
Yesterday we called on Mr. Faggi's friend, Miss Rubenstein, whom he asked us to call on about Christmas time. She was out and as she lives near the museum, we went over to look again at the Chinese paintings, stopping first to see the armor. One of the attendants took charge of us and discanted on history, armor making, the relative size of collections, the silk flags hanging from the roof and we were much benefitted.
Letter from Marianne Moore to Bryher ; May 5, 1923.
We have seen a loan exhibition of very old Chinese paintings at the Metropolitan, which would I think, interest you ; one of 'spirited horses' – a series of white horses with scarlet pompoms and smoky manes and tails ; one of a dragon in the clouds, concealed but for a few claws ; Enjoying the Breeze in a Fishing-Boat which made me think of the Oxford punt, and one of supremely delicate brush work called Herd Boys Returning Home in which two elderly peasants are mounted on water oxen upon whose skin whorls are indicated with minute brush strokes in a darker colour so blended as to be imperceptible except upon scrutiny. We also examined the manuscript of a poem on Wang Wei : 'He took ten days to paint a river and five days a rock. A masterpiece cannot be4 produced in haste or by pressure. It was after bestowing such pains as these that Wang Tsai allowed his work to remain. Powerful is the painting of the Fang Hu mountains of the Kuen Lun Range, and high it is hung on the spotless wall in the lofty hall of your mansion'. Since seeing the pictures, my only diversion has been the circus.
Mentioned People (1)
Moore, Marianne
(Kirkwood, Miss. 1887-1972 New York, N.Y.) : Dichterin, Schriftstellerin
[Permission for quotations by Cynthia Stamy and Qian Zhaoming].
[Permission for quotations by Cynthia Stamy and Qian Zhaoming].
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
Documents (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 | Moore, Marianne. The selected letters of Marianne Moore. Bonnie Costello general editor. (New York, N.Y. : A.A. Knopf, 1997). S. 194, 196, 197. | Publication / Moo8 | |
| 2 | 2003 |
Qian, Zhaoming. The modernist response to Chinese art : Pound, Moore, Stevens. (Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2003). http://books.google.ch/books/about/The_Modernist_Response_to_Chinese_ Art.html?id=S0AHhe2a0NoC&redir_esc=y. S. 72. |
Publication / SteW10 |