Court Lady Awaiting by the Lantern

A court lady in a red robe slouches against a bamboo basket near the tall lantern lamp. Her arms are crossed as they drape down in a relaxed manner, and she is looking away, perhaps lost in thought or sleepy. The striking red of her outfit matches the gently burning candle, suggesting a mixture of pining and anxiety. The calligraphic inscription on the right, translated literally as “lying sideways by a burning lantern, waiting for daylight,” implies that this attendant has just served a long night shift.
 

This is a vivid depiction of the daily life of court ladies dedicating their youth to serving the luxurious palatial life of the nobility. This kind of portrayal of court ladies served as a distinctive subgenre of Chinese figure paintings, with visual laments often derived from old poems and anecdotes. The sensibility characteristic of palatial laments was meant to activate Chinese viewers’ cultural memory to imagine associated historical stories and literary works.