Painted in 1892 by Ren Yi, the most celebrated bird-and-flower painter of Shanghai in the late nineteenth century, this hanging scroll depicts a pair of mandarin ducks sheltering among windswept reeds above blossoming lotus. Thought to mate for life, mandarin ducks are a traditional Chinese symbol of marital fidelity, while the lotus, rising unsullied from murky water, carries Buddhist associations with purity and rebirth. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago's Florence Ayscough and Harley Farnsworth MacNair Collection.
Jacquard-woven both sides in soft, durable yarn; insert included.
