Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

CHINA

This work was painted by Pu Ru, a member of the last Imperial family of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) of China, just a year before he passed away. An inscription on the bottom right states the name of the artist, the date (October of 1962), as well as the purpose of this painting: it was done in memory of his mother Lady Xiang and his wife Luo Qingyuan.
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, standing on clouds, wears a headdress made of flowers with a Buddha image on the front. There is a calm expression on the round face of the Bodhisattva. Both hands are held together in front of the stomach. The robe is articulated with U-shaped lines; each fold and crease is depicted with “rippled water” lines (painted with a quivering brush), that vary in thickness along their lengths. In contrast, lines of uniform thickness are used for the face, hands, and feet. The painting is stamped with both a zhuwen (red character) seal and a baiwen (white character) seal.