Other Mindset

The Museum · the collection

Woman at Her Dressing Table

Leng Mei, early 18th century. China, Qing dynasty.

You are here

Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

A young woman in green robes sits at a red table with boxes and an ornamental rock while a standing companion places a flower in her hair; curtains frame the scene.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

A young woman sits at a red lacquered table, with a carved scholar’s rock and two decorated boxes in front of her. A companion standing behind her is tucking a flower into her hair. Curtains have been drawn back to show the room, and on the shelves behind are a teapot, books and small treasures. Leng Mei was a painter at the Qing court, where artists were beginning to learn European ideas about shading and perspective, and you can see him use them here: the table recedes, the folds of cloth are rounded, and the room has depth. Yet the scene stays calm and private, a quiet morning moment.

Look closely

  1. Find the flower being placed in her hair.
  2. Look at the shelves behind. What objects can you identify?
  3. Look at the table’s legs and edges. How does the painter make it look solid?

While you sit

A quiet morning, with nowhere to be. Take your time getting ready for nothing in particular.

Your seat in the galleries: a small red-lacquered stool-bench with a pale green silk cushion.

About the work

Title
Woman at Her Dressing Table
Artist
Leng Mei
Date
early 18th century
From
China, Qing dynasty
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Size
Image: 66 13/16 × 37 3/16 in. (169.7 × 94.5 cm)
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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