The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 8, 2024

River Village in a Rainstorm

River Village in a Rainstorm

c. 1480–1507
(Chinese)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Hanging scroll; ink and slight color on silk
Painting: 170.5 x 103.4 cm (67 1/8 x 40 11/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 279.6 x 134.3 cm (110 1/16 x 52 7/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1970.76
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

A young boy peeks out a window perhaps viewing the two people struggling through the rain.

Description

In this scene, windswept rain pelting a village captures the power of nature in a masterful composition.

Lü Wenying from Zhejiang served as a court painter during the Hongzhi era (1488–1505). Hardly known, with few remaining works, he is considered a Zhe school painter who followed the style of the Southern Song academy. Zhe school painters, named after the province of Zhejiang, transformed the poetic scenery of the Southern Song artists into dramatic, large-scale views. Active in the same region with frequent monsoon rains in the summer season, artists were familiar with outbreaks of rain and storms.
  • ?-1970
    (Kinzen Company, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1970-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Chūgoku bijutsu 中國美術. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1972. Mentioned and Printed; II, pt. 2, pp. 215-216, pl. 3
    Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Ri Tō, Ba En, Ka Kei 李唐・馬遠・夏珪. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, Shōwa 49 [1974]. Reproduced: p. 168, pl. 73
    Lee, Sherman E. “Early Ming Painting at the Imperial Court.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 62, no. 8, 1975, pp. 243–259. Reproduced: p. 251, figs. 11-13 25152602
    Kawakami, Kei 川上涇, and Takeyoshi Tsuruta 鶴田武. Chūgoku no meiga 中国の名画. Tōkyō: Sekai Bunkasha, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: X, 38, p. 36
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 348 archive.org
    Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580. New York: Weatherhill, 1978. Reproduced: p. 108, pl. 51
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 139, p. 164
    Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Chugoku kaiga shi [中國繪畫史 = A History of Chinese Painting]. Tōkyō: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1981. Reproduced: p. 62, cat. no. 60
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: p. 57, cat. no. 33
    Nishioka, Yasuhiro 西岡康宏 and Noriko Miyazaki 宮崎法子. Min 明. Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1999. Reproduced: p. 27, no. 12
    Watson, William. The Arts of China 900-1620. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Reproduced: p. 182, fig. 272
    Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: p. 102, fig. 5
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 260-263
    Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 85
  • China's Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Ji Yunfei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016).
    Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 13-November 17, 2004).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 3, 1982-February 28, 1983).
    Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).
  • {{cite web|title=River Village in a Rainstorm|url=false|author=Lu Wenying|year=c. 1480–1507|access-date=08 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.76