Greeting the New Year

The bare trees and wintry sky in this precisely rendered scene indicate that the season is winter and the temperature cool. Children have gathered within the courtyard of a large household to greet the New Year morning with drums, harps, cymbals, and fire crackers. Attractive, easily understood, paintings like this were displayed throughout the New Year holiday season in China lending a festive air to celebratory activities.

The figurative style of Wang Rusheng is rooted in late Ming Suzhou artists like Li Shita (1549-1621). The legends of the seals that Wang used in this painting suggest that, in spite of his assured professional technique, he still saw himself as a literati. His seals read: Ru Sheng(bound to advance); Xue Geng (plowing through study) and Jin Ren Ai Gu Ren (not adhering to my contemporaries but loving the ancients).