The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Horizontally long hanging scroll in dark, muted colors depicting a panoramic view of mountains shrouded in hazy, white clouds and cut through by a winding river. Dense clusters of brush stroke convey trees and shrubbery covering the round, undulating mountains, trees and a bridge over the water detailed closest to us. Chinese calligraphy extends across the upper left corner and against a cream fourth of the scroll on the left (see "Inscriptions").

Cloudy Mountains

1130

Mi Youren

(Chinese, 1072–1151)
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Image: 43.7 x 192.6 cm (17 3/16 x 75 13/16 in.); Overall: 45.5 x 646.8 cm (17 15/16 x 254 5/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1933.220
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This scroll is one of the museum’s earliest dated Chinese paintings.

Description

Cloudy Mountains captures the view of a lush and misty riverscape, an impression of Mi Youren’s new environment, painted in a moment of peace.

With the fall of the Northern Song dynasty in 1127 upon the Jurchen’s military invasion, Mi Youren fled south across the Yangzi River. In 1130, he had reached Xinchang in Zhejiang province and thanked his host with this painting for having given him shelter.

Mi Youren was the oldest son of the art critic Mi Fu (1051– 1107); both developed a distinct style of mountain scenery by accumulating wet ink dots that create a hazy atmosphere.
  • Zigu 子榖 [mid-1600s]
    Xisan 錫三 of Yang xing zhai 養性齋 [likely 1800s]
    Li Zaixian 李在銛 [early 1900s]
    Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 [1866–1940]
    Yamamoto Teijiro 山本悌二郞 [1870–1937], Tokyo, Japan
    ?–1933
    (Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1933–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928. p. 56
    "Part II. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Cleveland Museum of Art 1933." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 21, no. 2 (February 1934): 1–15. Mentioned: p. 4 www.jstor.org
    The Chinese Exhibition; A Commemorative Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, November 1935-March 1936. London: Faber and Faber, 1936. Mentioned: cat. no. 1140, p. 48; Reproduced: cat. no. 1140a-c, p. 110
    Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition: June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1936. cat. no. 382
    Pacific Cultures, Department of Fine Arts, Division of Pacific Cultures. San Francisco, CA: Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939. Reproduced: cat. no. 126
    Francis, Henry. "Loans to Important Exhibitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 7 (July 1939): 123. Mentioned: p. 123 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman. "Chinese Landscape Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 9 (November 1954): 199–201. Mentioned: p. 200 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. Mentioned: cat. no. 15; Reproduced: pp. 32, 33 archive.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. 854 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 258 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. 258 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 341 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E. “River Village: Fisherman’s Joy.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 7 (October 1979): 271–288. Reproduced: pp. 271–288, fig. 11 www.jstor.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. 24, pp. 42–44
    Harrist, Robert E. "Watching Clouds Rise: A Tang Dynasty Couplet and Its Illustration in Song Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 7 (1991): 301–323. Mentioned: p. 323, p. 313 www.jstor.org
    Cunningham, Michael. “Notes on the Artist Sōami and a Lost Painting.” Monumenta Serica 43 (1995): 405–438. Reproduced: pl. 9, p. 432 www.jstor.org
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 38–39, cat. no. 18
    Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: fig. 3, pp. 98–100
    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. 50–55
    Burnett, Katharine P. "A New Look at a New Look: Painting and Theory of Seventeenth-Century China." Little, Stephen. In 17th-century Chinese paintings from the Tsao family collection. Stephen Little, ed., 130–167. Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich, Germany; DelMonico Books, 2016. Reproduced: pp. 158–159
    Von Spee, Clarissa. "Lichtenstein's China: Consider the inspiration of a 900-year-old scroll on a Pop Art master." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 4 (July/August 2017): 14–15. Reproduced: pp. 14–15; Mentioned: p. 14 archive.org
    Moser, Jeffrey. "Mist as Method." Manual Issue 9 (Fall 2017): 16–29. Reproduced: p. 26, fig. 6
    Hai, Willow Weilan. "Mountains of China: Legends and Civilization." Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer's Lens. Willow Weilan Hai, ed., 11–41. New York: China Institute, 2018. Reproduced: p. 31
    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. 82, fig. 42
    Chaves, Jonathan. The Chinese painter as poet. New York, NY: China Institute Gallery, China Institute, 2000. Reproduced: cat. no. 2, pp. 34–35, p. 132
    Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa Von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 148–149, no. 45
    Park, J. P. "Pastmodern: The Traditions of the Avant-Garde in Early Asian Art." Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 87 (February 14, 2023): 43–57. Reproduced: p. 46 (fig. 4 and 4a); Mentioned: p. 45
    Liu, Yiwen 刘漪文. “人间天堂的别处想象：在克利夫兰艺术博物馆遥望中国江南” [Imagining Paradise Elsewhere: Gazing at China's Jiangnan from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. The Art Newspaper 艺术新闻中文版, November 2, 2023. Reproduced www.tanchinese.com
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Inspired by Chinese Landscape and Art – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 14, 2017-February 5, 2018).
    Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 4-July 22, 2003).
    The Chinese Painter as Poet. China Institute in America, New York, NY (organizer) (September 14-December 17, 2000).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    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).
    Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981).
    Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).
    Exhibition of the Month: The Romantic Spirit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 5, 1952).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    Pacific Cultures, China. Golden Gate International Exhibition, San Francisco, CA (1939).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    The International Exhibition of Chinese Art. Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England (November 28, 1935-March 7, 1936).
    To-So-Gen-Min, II. Tokyo Imperial Museum, Tokyo, Japan (November 24-December 16, 1928).
  • {{cite web|title=Cloudy Mountains|url=false|author=Mi Youren|year=1130|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1933.220