Green Chinese Jar

Ruth Payne Burgess, Green Chinese Jar, 1924, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.10
Copied Ruth Payne Burgess, Green Chinese Jar, 1924, oil on canvas, 24 1⁄8 x 16 1⁄8 in. (61.2 x 41.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.10
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Green Chinese Jar
Artist
Date
1924
Location
Dimensions
24 1⁄8 x 16 1⁄8 in. (61.2 x 41.0 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Still life — other — container
  • Still life — art object — sculpture
Object Number
1929.6.10
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1929.6.10

Artwork Description

This painting shows a large pale green urn and a small figure of a Chinese scholar. After the fall of the Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty, hundreds of thousands of porcelains, paintings, and sculptures made their way out of China and into Western hands. A Chinese jar described as “pale green . . . on an ebony standard” was given as a gift at the society wedding of Countess Alice S. Szechenyi and Count Bela Hadik in 1931. Ruth Payne Burgess’s painting reflects the vogue among fashionable ladies of the 1920s for “Oriental” gowns and interiors.