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Additional Views

Nov 13, 2009

May 18, 2010

Nov 13, 2009

May 18, 2010

Old Pine Tree

畫松圖

late 1530s

Wen Zhengming 文徵明

(Chinese, 1470–1559)

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

Handscroll, ink on paper

Painting: 28 x 139.3 cm (11 x 54 13/16 in.); Overall: 29.3 x 596.9 cm (11 9/16 x 235 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1964.43

Location

not on view

Description

Here the natural appearance of a gnarled and vine-entangled pine has been transformed into a rhythmic abstraction of brushstrokes and ink tonalities, with unifying opposites—opening and closing, rising and falling—that provide the design across the horizontal scroll. The artist's inscription reads: "The force of change beyond restraint; / The dragon's whiskers are likened to a forest of spears."

Inscriptions

Inscription

變化勢難縛，虬髯似戟森. 徵明 [印]文徵明印; 衡山

Inscription Translation

Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: The force of change is beyond restraint;/ The dragon’s whiskers are likened to a forest of spears. Zhengming [seals] Wen Zhengming yin; Hengshan

Inscription

2 partial seals of Qian Shisheng 錢士昇 (1575-1652)

Inscription Remark

The seals were transcribed as 魏塘貴主 "Wei tang gui zhu" and 魏塘錢氏賜... "Wei tang qian shi ci..." in the Shiqu Baoji 石渠寶笈, the 1745 catalogue of the Qing imperial collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy. Weitang 魏塘 refers to Jiashan 嘉善, a city in Northern Zhejiang province near Jiaxing 嘉興. Qiang Shisheng 錢士昇 (1575–1652) had a studio by the name of Ciyu Tang 賜餘堂. Thus, In his 2015 Silent Poetry catalogue, Ju-hsi Chou proposed that the reading for these seals should be “Wei tang yi lao” 魏塘遺老 (An old survivor in Weitang) and “Wei tang qian shi ci yu tang should cang yin” 魏塘錢氏賜餘堂收藏印 (Collection seal for Ciyu Tang of the Qian clan of Weitang).

Inscription

8 imperial seals: 6 of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-95); 1 of the Jiaqing emperor (r. 1796-1821); 1 of the Xuantong emperor (r. 1909-11).

Provenance

Qian Shisheng 錢士昇 [1575–1652]

at least by 1736-c. 1911

Qing imperial collection (seals of Emperors Qianlong, r. 1736–1795; Jiaqing, r. 1796–1820; and Xuanzong, r. 1909-11)

?-1964

(Jean-Pierre Dubosc [1904–1988], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1964-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Mi dian zhu lin/Shi qu bao ji 秘殿珠林石渠寶笈. 2 vols. Taipei: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan [National Palace Museum], 1971. (Original text dated 1745.) Mentioned; vol. 1, p. 602

Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1934. p. 23

Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 263

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 264 archive.org

Lee, Sherman E. “Literati and Professionals: Four Ming Painters.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 1, 1966, pp. 2–25. Reproduced: pp. 7, 8, fig. 2 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 264 archive.org

Clapp, Anne de Coursey. Wen Cheng-Ming: The Ming Artist and Antiquity. Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1975. Reproduced: pp. 75, 76, fig. 39

Edwards, Richard. The Art of Wen Cheng-Ming (1470-1559). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1976. cat. no. XVII

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 350 archive.org

Hironobu Kohara 古原宏伸, Richard Edwards, and Takeo Hibino 日比野丈夫. Shin Shū, Bun Chōmei [沈周文徴明 = Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming]. Tōkyō: Chūō Kōronsha, 1978. Reproduced: p. 168, pl. 61

Watson, William. L'art de l'ancienne Chine. Paris: Mazenod, 1979. Reproduced: pl. 150

Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286-323. Reproduced: p. 308-09, 323 www.jstor.org

Laozi 老子 and James Legge, translator. Tao Te Ching 道德经. New York: Metro Books, 2008. Reproduced: fig. 33

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: pp. 270-278

Li, T. June. "Debts of Gratitude." Orientations 49, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2018): 117-119. Reproduced: no. 119, fig. 3

Spee, Clarissa von, Cai Guo-Qiang, and David Stradling. Cai Guo-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 48

Exhibition history

Mostra d'arte cinese (Settimo centenario di Marco Polo). Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (1954).

The Art of Wen Cheng-ming. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (January 25-February 29, 1976); Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (April 7-June 7, 1976)

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 (July 28, 2014-January 7, 2015).

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).

The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).

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

Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 25, 1990).

Silent Poetry: Masterworks of Chinese Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 14, 2015-April 24, 2016).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Old Pine Tree|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.43|author=Wen Zhengming|year=late 1530s|access-date=05 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Old Pine Tree

Old Pine Tree

畫松圖

Wen Zhengming 文徵明

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