The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 8, 2023

Ducks under Reeds

蘆鴨圖

1400s

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk

Overall: 122.5 x 79.4 cm (48 1/4 x 31 1/4 in.)

Gift of Charles L. Freer 1915.117

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The artist realistically represented that the Mandarin duck is a sexually dimorphic species, meaning males and females differ in appearance.

Inscriptions

Inscription

1 label on mounting, dated 1796, by Yong Xing 永瑆 (Prince Cheng 成亲王, 1752-1823)

Inscription

7 seals: 1 of Song Luo 宋犖 (1634-1713); 1 of Gong Erduo 宮爾鐸 (b. 1838); 5 unidentified

Provenance
Song Luo 宋犖 [1634–1713]
Gong Erduo 宮爾鐸 [b. 1838]
?-1915
Charles L. Freer [1854–1919], Detroit. MI, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1915-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
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. 127, pp. 149-150
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. 94-96
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.
Mentioned: p. 94
Tang, Yin 唐寅, Xu Wei 徐渭, and Qiu Ying 仇英. Ming Hua Quan Ji 明畫全集. Hangzhou: Zhejiang da xue chu ban she, 2017. Mentioned and reproduced: Vol. 20, pt. 2, p. 216-217, 317
Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 80, fig. 40
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 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.117