Late 18th - early 19th century

Twelve-Panel Screen

The ladies in these palace scenes are engaged in pursuits such as looking at antiquities, enjoying plum blossoms in winter, gazing at the moon during the Moon Festival, reading books, dressing hair in the fall, sipping cool soup in the summer, drinking tea, and raising birds and rabbits. Both end panels feature the "Hundred Antiquities," a decorative motif that includes archaic bronzes and other objects popular for a Chinese scholar's study. The feminine scenes and the auspicious creatures with their young on the lower portions of the panels all suggest that this screen was intended for a woman's quarters.