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Alternate Views

Pure Tones among Hills and Waters

山水清音圖

1664

Xiao Yuncong 蕭雲從

(Chinese, 1596-1673)

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)

Handscroll, ink and light color on paper

Overall: 30.8 x 781.7 cm (12 1/8 x 307 3/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1954.262

Location

not on view

Description

Painted by Xiao Yuncong at an advanced age, this work exhibits a spontaneous effect of effortlessness, with a rough boldness that differs from the artist's other style depicting striated mountains with carefully articulated brushwork.

A humble retreat amid planted pines is set against the backdrop of grand mountains and rivers. A mood of quietude echoes these poetic lines in the artist’s inscription: The myriad sounds for a time fall silent, and a trifling breeze drops a pure tone. No one can describe this feeling, and who could appraise this scene?

Inscriptions

Inscription

種松發秀色，具是高人心。/ 鑿石築茅屋，長年覆綠陰。/ 白雲無意出，舒卷趨空林。/ 萬籟時一寂，微風墮清音。/ 此情莫可擬，此景誰能論。/ 只向千峰裏，共彈五絃琴。/ 桃花依綠水，不覺又春深。甲辰花朝題于青蓮閣, 鐘山老人蕭雲從。[印] 鐘山老人

Inscription Translation

Artist's inscription, signature, and seal: Planting pine to unveil its natural color:/ This is an idea appealing to all lofty minds./ [He] chiseled into the rocks to build a thatched cottage,/ To shade with greeneries all year around./ The white clouds drift by with no will of their own/ Rolling and stretching toward the vacant forests./ Suddenly all sounds are hushed,/ While a pure tone falls from a light breeze./ This sentiment is impossible to articulate,/ And the scene is beyond words./ To the thousands of peaks we go,/ To play a duet on the qin of five strings./ Petals of peach blossom flow along the green stream;/ Without us being aware, the spring has deepened./ On the "Day of Flowers" in the jiachen year [twelfth day of the second lunar month of 1664], inscribed at the Blue Lotus Pavilion (Qinglian Ge 青蓮閣), by the Old Man of Zhong Mountain. Xiao Yuncong [seal] Zhong shan lao ren.

Inscription

Title and inscription, dated 1744, and 3 seals of Shen Feng 沈鳳 (1685-1755).

Inscription

4 colophons and 24 additional seals: 1 colophon, dated 1811, and 5 seals of Xiang Yuan 項源 (active about 1811); 1 colophon, dated 1858, and 2 seals of Qi Junzao 祁寯藻 (1793-1866); 1 colophon and 4 seals of Zhang Yunzhong 張允中 (1881–1960?); 4 seals of Jiang Xun 江恂 (active about 1753–after 1780); 1 colophon dated 1943, and 2 seals of Wang Shaoming 汪兆銘 (Wang Jingwei 汪精衛, 1883–1944); 1 seal of Qi Zhiliu 祁之鏐 (active about 1858); 2 seals of Yu Zhimeng 俞芷盟 (second half of 19th century); 4 seals unidentified.

Provenance

Jiang Xun 江恂 [active about 1753–after 1780]

Xiang Yuan 項源 [active about 1811]

Qi Zhiliu 祁之鏐 [active about 1858]

Yu Zhimeng 俞芷盟 [second half of 19th century]

Wu Changshou 吳昌綬 [1867–1924]

Zhang Yunzhong 張允中 [1881–1960?]

Wang Shaoming 汪兆銘 [Wang Jingwei 汪精衛, 1883–1944]

?-1954

(Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1954-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. cat. no. 102

Trubner, Henry. A Chinese Landscape by Hsiao Yün-Tsʼung. Oriental Art, New Series, V. 1, No. 3. [Surrey, England, etc.]: [Oriental Art Magazine, Ltd.], 1955. Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 6, 7

Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 337

Lee, Sherman E. “Some Problems in Ming and Ch'ing Landscape Painting.” Ars Orientalis, vol. 2, 1957, pp. 471–485. Reproduced: pp. 480-82, pl. 13, fig. 17 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 876 archive.org

Goepper, Roger. Im Schatten des Wu-Tʻung-Baumes [桐陰畫訣 = Tong yin hua jue]. München: Hirmer, 1959. Reproduced: pl. 26

Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München: Haus der Kunst, 1959. cat. no. 105

Goepper, Roger. Chinesische Malerei: die jüngere Tradition. Bern: Hallwag, 1960. p. 182, no. 105

Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962. Reproduced: pp. 119-21, no. 95

Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964. Reproduced: p. 454, fig. 597

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 268 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 268 archive.org

Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Chūgoku bijutsu [中國美術 = Chinese art in Western collections]. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1972. Reproduced: II, pt. 2, 231, 232, pl. 40

Rosenzweig, Daphne Lange. "A Landscape Handscroll by Hsiao Yün-ts'ung." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 32, no. 1 (1974-75): pp. 34-56. Reproduced: p. 47, fig. 17

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 356 archive.org

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. 223, pp. 297-298

Exhibition history

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 7-July 7, 2015).

1000 Jahre Chinesische Malerei. Haus der Kunst, Mùnich, Germany (organizer) (October 16-December 13, 1959).

Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).

Inspired by Chinese Landscape and Art – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 14, 2017-February 5, 2018).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Pure Tones among Hills and Waters|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.262|author=Xiao Yuncong|year=1664|access-date=18 October 2021|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Pure Tones among Hills and Waters

Pure Tones among Hills and Waters

山水清音圖

Xiao Yuncong 蕭雲從

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