The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

late 1760s
Overall: 257.8 x 377.8 cm (101 1/2 x 148 3/4 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

This European-style tapestry depicts a family gathering, in a woven Western picture frame, that presumably once furnished the Hall of Cultivating the Mind (Yangxin dian) in the Forbidden City. The tapestry employs Western perspective and shading combined with the traditional Chinese subject of a family gathering in a palace, including motifs expressing wishes for good fortune and for a peaceful reign.

In 1766, six French tapestries had been presented to the Chinese court. The Qianlong emperor was so intrigued that he commissioned tapestries in the French style from Suzhou. Records mention an imperial order for tapestries in the Western style, such as this one, in 1769, 1770, and 1775.
  • 1914–1942
    John L. Severance [1863–1936], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1942–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • "A Chinese Tapestry." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 25, no. 136 (1914): 231-30. pp. 230-31 www.jstor.org.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916. Mentioned: p. 174, no. 41
    Marceau, Henri, Horace H. F. Jayne, Calvin S Hathaway, Nancy Andrews Reath, and Boies Penrose. “The Stotesbury Collection.” Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum 28, no. 151 (1932): 19–31. p. 30
    Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942. Reproduced: p. [57], Plate XXVIII, cat. no. 124; Mention: p. 60, cat. no. 124 archive.org
    Milliken, William M., Gertrude Underhill, and Jean Mailey. "Department of Decorative Arts." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (1942): 137-51. pp. 148-149 www.jstor.org.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org
    Lee, Sherman E. “Varieties of Portraiture in Chinese and Japanese Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 4 (1977): 118–136. Mentioned: footnote 9, pp. 121 and 135 www.jstor.org
    Ball, Victoria Kloss. Architecture and Interior Design: Europe and America from the Colonial Era to Today. vol. 2. New York: Wiley, 1980. Reproduced: fig. 2.32, pl. 81
    Imagining Qianlong: Louis XV's Chinese Emperor Tapestries and Battle Scene Prints at the Imperial Court in Beijing. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2017. Reproduced: pp. 56-57, fig. 1
    Rado, Mei Mei. “Qing Imperial Encounters with European Tapestries: The ‘Tenture Chinoise’ and Beyond.” In Arachné / Textes Rassemblés Et Édités Par Pascal-François Bertrand Et Audrey Nassieu Maupas Seite. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2017. pp. 119-135
  • China's Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    The Porcelain Connection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-August 15, 1982).
    Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).
    Exhibition of the Month: Historic Flower Containers. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 31, 1952-March 3, 1953).
    Gallery I - Exhibition of the Month: Chinese Furniture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 1946).
    Exhibition of the John L. Severance Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 12, 1942-March 14, 1943).
    Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).
  • {{cite web|title=Family Gathering on New Year's Morning|url=false|author=|year=late 1760s|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.825