The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 10, 2024

Landscape with Flying Geese

Landscape with Flying Geese

mid-1200s
(Chinese, c. 1185–after 1260)
China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Album leaf; ink and slight color on silk
Image: 25.5 x 26.5 cm (10 1/16 x 10 7/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1952.285
Location: not on view

Description

This minimalist landscape places most of the representational elements in the lower right foreground. A lone gentleman strolls along a zigzagging path by the water. With the gentleman’s staff acting as a visual cue, the viewer’s gaze is directed to geese flying over distant mountains.

The scene of a marshland, with its wet and soft ground dotted with vegetation, suggests springtime in Jiangnan. Combined with the flying geese, the album evokes the poetic lines:
By spring fields, geese are about to return,
Under chilly waters, fish are submerging.
春郊欲回雁, 寒水正沉鱼
  • ?–1952
    (Dr. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch [1874–1959], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1952–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. and Wai-Kam Ho. "Scattered Pearls beyond the Ocean." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Feb., 1964), pp. 23-39. Reproduced: pp. 23-39, cat. no. 7 www.jstor.org
    Wang, Chi-chʻien. Album Leaves from the Sung and Yuan Dynasties: [Exhibition], March 26 Through May 30, 1970. New York: The [China House] Gallery, 1970. cat. no. 34
    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. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 56, p. 71
    Tanenbaum, Mary. Fishing on the Terrace: A Collection of Writings, edited by Heather Parks. [Redwood City, CA]: Stanford University Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 108
  • China's Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    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).
    Oriental Art. Berea College, Berea, KY (organizer) (November 1-December 1, 1962).
    Oriental Art. Berea College, Berea, OH (1962).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape with Flying Geese|url=false|author=Ma Lin|year=mid-1200s|access-date=10 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.285