Pure Fragrance Amid the Cold
Unknown (Chinese)
The Work
The inscribed title reads 寒裡清香 — Han Li Qing Xiang, "pure fragrance amid the cold".
I was first drawn to the pieces because of their beauty and felt that I could save them from ending up in landfill. I was also excited by the challenge of this. The inscription, Han Li Qing Xiang — "pure fragrance amid the cold" — speaks to resilience and quiet beauty enduring through hardship, a sentiment I find genuinely moving. Rescuing a piece like this from obscurity and giving it a stable home again felt like an act worth doing in its own right.
- Year
- Unknown — estimated circa 1950s–60s, possibly earlier, based on materials and style
- Medium
- Ink and colour on silk
- Image size
- 190 mm x 385 mm
- Framed size
- 355 mm x 560 mm
- Catalogue
- 0035
Provenance
This painting was salvaged from Facebook Marketplace, where it had survived in poor, deteriorating frames. I carefully stabilised and repaired the silk using wheat starch paste — a traditional, reversible conservation method — and had it conservation-framed to protect and present it properly. Its history prior to that point is unknown.
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