1130
(Chinese, 1072–1151)
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
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.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1933.220
The handscroll’s multicolored silk brocade cover has a title label and a sticker left from when it was lent to the 1935–36 International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy in London.
Cloudy Mountains pictures a lush and misty riverscape from the Lower Yangzi Delta in Southeast China. Mi Youren painted the scene after fleeing south across the Yangzi River to escape the Jin military forces that had overthrown the Song dynasty in the north. On the painting is the artist’s inscription: “Fine hills are endless toward the edges of heaven, so are mist and clouds, rain and shine, days and nights. . . . In the year of gengxu [1130] I painted this, while seeking refuge in Xinchang.” This scroll is one of the museum’s earliest dated Chinese paintings and major works of art.
The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.
To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.
All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.