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Dec 8, 2009

Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man

層崗飛瀑圖

1705

Hua Yan 華喦

(Chinese, 1682-about 1765)

and Wei Shijie 魏士傑

(Chinese, 1667-after 1747)

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk

Painting: 130 x 47.2 cm (51 3/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Overall: 281 x 95 cm (110 5/8 x 37 3/8 in.)

Gift of various donors by exchange 2001.120

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Hua Yan's autobiographical inscription, full of remorse and insecurity, is squeezed into the contour of a hill in the upper left.

Description

This portrait was jointly executed by Wei Shijie and Hua Yan himself who painted the landscape in the background. Hua Yan is shown here at the age of about 23. The sword at his back is a reference to his early desire for a military career, while the scholar’s robe suggests an opposing aspiration. Together these are signs of a complex personality.

The painting also reveals Hua Yan’s early talent in painting. While Wei Shijie is little known, Hua Yan would later become a well-known painter. In addition to Wei Shijie and Hua Yan, nine of Hua Yan’s contemporary friends left inscriptions on the painting.

Inscriptions

Inscription

寫照余非擅，營圖爾自高。/ 偶然裁尺幅，毋待著三豪。/ 護嶺笙疑徹，豐誠劍且韜。/ 懸崖對飛雪，如聼廣陵濤。/ 士傑為秋岳道盟作小影並題。 [印]：魏士傑，子良

Inscription Translation

Poem by Wei Shijie: I am not so skilled in portraiture;/ You are far superior in composing pictures./ By chance we had a piece of silk cut to size./ But await [a master] with the skill of three strands./ Shrouding the cliff, the panpipe’s sound seems all-penetrating./ Well nourished and sincere, you hide the sword in the shield./ The sheer cliffs stand against the flying snow./ Can we hear the Guanglin tides at all?/ Portrait painted for Qiuyue (Hua Yan) by Shijie. Seals: Wei Shijie, Ziliang

Inscription Remark

In the context of portraiture, "three strands" 三豪 likely refers to Gu Kaizhi's 顧愷之 depicting the likeness of his contemporary Pei Kai 斐楷. By adding three hairs or strands of beard in Pei Kai's cheeks, he was able to accentuate his personal characteristics.

Inscription

僕自棄孤，乍設己隨四方。蓬根飄零，竟成浩嘆。媿窮途於阮籍。十年悔不讀書。羞問字之侯芭。千里何曾負笈。而況匡廬既遠。空懐飛雪之崖。延津未遥，莫辯化龍之劍。慈親在望，空事遠游。杜宇為聲，不如歸去。嗟乎，半生岐途，未免亡羊。百尺竿頭，如何進歩。從前孟浪，圖此猖狂。

Inscription Translation

Inscription by Hua Yan: Since I became an orphan, I set about to travel widely. Like an uprooted man, I was aimless. In the end, all I have left is but to heave a deep sigh./ When compared with Ruan Ji [AD 210–263], I am ashamed to have achieved so little: a full decade I lost for not having studied. Faced with Hou Ba’s [1st century AD] inquisitiveness, I felt inadequate: why didn’t I carry any books with me in my long journeys? Mt. Kuanglu, moreover, is far away; even if I could still see the snow flurries around its peaks in my imagination, what’s the use? But Yanjing is by no means distant; still I am unable to discern a sword that can turn into a dragon./ My kind mother has been longing for me. It’s utterly senseless that I should travel so far. Listen to the call of the cuckoo; more than ever it is time to return. Alas, I trod many wrong paths in my life. I have become a lost sheep! To improve myself seems like climbing a pole of a hundred feet./ I was uncouth indeed. You may portray me as a wild eccentric!

Inscription Remark

Hua's reference to being an orphan likely refers to the death of his father.

Inscription

Top inscription on the painting by Jiang Hongdao 將弘道, dated yiyou, the forty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1705)

Inscription

Seven additional colophons on the silk mounting

Provenance

1800s

Hua Pinyu 華品玉 (active 1800s)

June 1, 1989

(Christie's, New York, Important Classical Chinese Paintings, June 1, 1989 sale, lot 30)

1989?-1999?

Private Collection of a Min Chiu Society 敏求精舍 member, Hong Kong

April 25, 1999

(Christie's, Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Classical Painting an Calligraphy, April 25, 1999, lot 270)

?-2001

(Kaikodo America Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

2001-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Fukunaga, Takehiko 福永武彥, and Howard L. Rogers. Kinnō, Bunjinga suihen. chiyūgo (9) 金農, 文人画粋編. 中国篇 9. Tōkyō: Chūōkoronsha, 1986. Mentioned: no. 116, pp. 184-185; Reproduced: no. 116, p. 97

Christie's, New York. Important Classical Chinese Paintings. Thursday, June 1, 1989, at 10:00 A.M. Lot 30

Li dai wen wu cui zhen: Min qiu jing she san shi zhou nian ji nian zhan [历代文物萃珍: 敏求精舍三十周年纪念展 = Selected Treasures of Chinese Art, Min Chiu Society Thirtieth Anniversary Exhibition Catalogue]. Hong Kong: Min qiu jing she, 1990. Reproduced: pl. 47 p. 122

Christie's Hong Kong. Fine classical Chinese paintings and calligraphy. April 25, 1999. Lot 270

“Worlds of Wonder.” Kaikodo Journal, XX (Autumn 2001). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 296, fig. 3

Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 440-446

Exhibition history

Greeting the Spring (Chinese art rotation, galleries 240a, 239, 241c). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 13, 2017).

Facing the Ancestors: Chinese Portraits and Figure Painting – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 12, 2019-February 2, 2020).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/2001.120|author=Hua Yan|year=1705|access-date=26 May 2022|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man

Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man

層崗飛瀑圖

Hua Yan 華喦

and Wei Shijie 魏士傑

Location

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Description

Inscription

Inscription Translation

Inscription Remark

Inscription

Inscription Translation

Inscription Remark

Inscription

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