Peony Queen of Flower Painting

Original oil painting on professional board. Full bloom peonies and fading roses, all the beauty and fragrance of flowers, unframed. Once upon a time in the Tang Dynasty, the Empress Wu Zetian was disappointed by the dull winter landscape and issued an imperial decree: “All of the flowers in the royal garden must bloom in the middle of winter!” The flower fairies panicked. "We should follow the course of nature and only bloom in the spring," they said. But no one dared to disobey Wu Zetian. The Empress was known to be ruthless. Although the next day it snowed heavily, the imperial garden was in full bloom. Delighted, the Empress walked through the garden admiring her own power to command nature. But something was amiss. Out of all the flowers in the garden, the Peonies refused to bloom. Enraged, the Empress banished the Peonies from the capital city to the city of Luoyang. That spring, in Luoyang, the Peonies bloomed beautifully. When the Empress found out, in a fit of anger, she ordered all the Peonies be burned. The Peonies struggled in the red fire. Although their branches blackened, the flowers seemed even more dazzling in the glowing flames. The next spring, even after being burned to the ground, the Peonies bloomed all across Luoyang to everyone’s surprise. To this day, Luoyang is known as the City of Peonies. When life gets hard and messy few dare to follow the course of nature, “living in the Tao” as the ancients called it. Because the Peonies followed the course of nature, the flower fairies declared the Peony as the Queen of Flowers. And to this day the Peony is the most celebrated flower in the Eastern tradition. Custom frame available upon request.