Artwork Page for Cloudy Mountains

Details / Information for Cloudy Mountains

Cloudy Mountains

雲山圖

1130

Mi Youren 米友仁

(Chinese, 1072–1151)
Culture
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Medium
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Measurements
Image: 43.7 x 192.6 cm (17 3/16 x 75 13/16 in.); Overall: 45.5 x 646.8 cm (17 15/16 x 254 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1933.220
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

This scroll is one of the museum’s earliest dated Chinese paintings.

Description

Cloudy Mountains captures the view of a lush and misty riverscape, an impression of Mi Youren’s new environment, painted in a moment of peace.

With the fall of the Northern Song dynasty in 1127 upon the Jurchen’s military invasion, Mi Youren fled south across the Yangzi River. In 1130, he had reached Xinchang in Zhejiang province and thanked his host with this painting for having given him shelter.

Mi Youren was the oldest son of the art critic Mi Fu (1051– 1107); both developed a distinct style of mountain scenery by accumulating wet ink dots that create a hazy atmosphere.
A hanging scroll in dark, muted colors depicts a panoramic view of mountains shrouded in hazy, white clouds and cut through by a winding river. Dense clusters of brushstrokes convey trees and shrubbery covering the round, undulating mountains. Trees and a bridge over the water are featured closest to us. Chinese calligraphy extends across the upper left corner and against a cream fourth of the scroll on the left (see "Inscriptions").

Cloudy Mountains

1130

Mi Youren

(Chinese, 1072–1151)
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)

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