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Landscape

1892

Ren Yu 任預

(Chinese, 1853–1901)
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Culture
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Medium
Hanging scroll; color on paper
Measurements
Overall: 149.5 x 40.7 cm (58 7/8 x 16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles L. Freer 1915.97.1
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

This seasonal landscape is from a set of four hanging scrolls by Ren Yu. He was the youngest, most eccentric, and least prolific of the Four Rens, a family of prominent painters in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Perhaps due to his opium habit and subsequent financial difficulties, Ren Yu tended to be lackadaisical in his work. The few remaining high-quality paintings hint at his artistic potential lost to opium.

Though Ren’s premature death left his artistic promise unfulfilled, his paintings were acquired and donated to the museum by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), a wealthy businessman and art collector from Detroit. As Freer had hoped, this donation of Ren Yu paintings inspired the young Cleveland Museum of Art to continue to expand its own Chinese painting collection.
A hanging scroll with color on beige paper depicts a vertical landscape of layered mountains in pale green and brown. In the foreground, trees with varied foliage cluster near a small pavilion on our right containing a tiny figure. Rounded hills with scattered pines recede through bands of mist. A massive mountain peak dominates the top with vertical brushwork. Chinese calligraphy and a red square seal mark the upper left corner.

Landscape

1892

Ren Yu

(Chinese, 1853–1901)
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

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