A commissioned work by the masterful calligrapher Wan Wing Sum, this set of four floral paintings contain pastel colours to display the European style of painting. Each painting includes the artist’s signature microscopic calligraphy barely visible to the naked eye on the antennas of the butterflies, grasshopper, and spider web. In the winter piece, the microscopic words inscribed on the wings of the bees is a poem by Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei, which reads: "You who have come from my old country, Tell me what has happened there ! -- Was the plum, when you passed my silken window, Opening its first cold blossom?" Popularly known as “The Lynx-Eyed Calligraphist”, Wan Wing Sum held his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 1938 followed by over 100 others internationally throughout his lifetime. Some of the countries he had exhibited in include China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, United States of America, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Israel, Spain, The Netherlands and more. He was revered for his micro-calligraphy – a technique that involves inscribing no lesser than 3000 characters within a limited space of one square of an inch without any optical aid – which was developed since the age of 12. At age 19, he was acclaimed as the youngest genius in the Lingnan school of art by one of the leading newspaper in China after his exhibition in Shanghai in 1941. Wherever he went to present his masterpieces, his work was greatly admired by government officials and local dignitaries as well as the public. The production company Warner Brothers produced educational films and newsreels to record the artist’s remarkable achievements in Chinese calligraphy when he visited Hollywood in the 1950s.