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Children at Play

嬰戲圖

1508

Xia Kui 夏葵

(Chinese, active c. 1405–1445)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Painting: 62.5 x 113.7 cm (24 5/8 x 44 3/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 214 x 137 cm (84 1/4 x 53 15/16 in.)
Gift of Charles L. Freer 1915.110
Location: not on view
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In the foreground on the right are three boys playing a kind of blind man’s bluff.

Description

Sixteen children engage in scholarly, religious, and military activities, representing the popular “one hundred boys” theme expressing the wish for abundant, successful male offspring. Such paintings conveying auspicious wishes were often displayed during the New Year festival season.

Two older boys wear small crowns with red tassels. Another child with a mask holds a brush in one hand, a rice measure in the other. He stands on a low table imitating Kuixing, the God of Examinations and servant to the God of Literature.
Children at Play

Children at Play

1508

Xia Kui

(Chinese, active c. 1405–1445)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

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