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Alternate Views

Apr 12, 2004

Apr 13, 2004

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 at the age of 68, this landscape is one of Xiao Yuncong’s most mature works. Extraordinary in its combination of fine details and bold brushstrokes and washes, it is also one of its longest compositions in handscroll format, extending over seven meters in length.

Biographical notes on Xiao Yuncong relate that he did not pursue the career of an official, but "furnished a cottage in the eastern suburbs [of Wuhu in Anhui province] and amused himself playing the qin (zither) and reading every day. All it took was for him to grab a brush, to complete poems and essays instantly. . . . He also was skilled in musical arts, astronomy, philology, yinyang studies, and its related skills at prognostication: indeed, he knew them all."

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

Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 351–359; fig. 1–3, pp. 354–355

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, Munich, 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).

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{{cite web|title=Pure Tones among Hills and Waters|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.262|author=Xiao Yuncong|year=1664|access-date=08 August 2022|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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