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Freer Gallery of Art
Chinese Callgraphy

Twelve scrolls of Chinese calligraphy, all of the finest quality and several of them unique works by the greatest masters in Chinese calligraphic history, were acquired by the Freer Gallery of Art in October 1979. The scrolls, plus an additional hand scroll donated to the Gallery, include a wide range of styles and cover a broad span of time. The most remarkable is a hand scroll which includes a fragmentary rubbing of Wang Hsien-chih's (344-388) "Epitaph for My Wet-nurse." Other works present traditional poems and essays. Also included are two palace-scale scrolls (nearly 12 feet in height) from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), of poems by Wen Cheng-ming and his son, Wen P'eng. The collection immediately makes the Freer Gallery one of three major centers in the country for the study of Chinese calligraphy.

[[image - black & white photograph of a scroll with label "Detail of Handscroll Wang Hsien-chih (344-388)"]]