The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Tall Bamboo and Distant Mountains, after Wang Meng

1694

Wang Hui

(Chinese, 1632–1717)
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Painting: 79.6 x 39.4 cm (31 5/16 x 15 1/2 in.); Overall with knobs: 215.8 x 61.6 cm (84 15/16 x 24 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1953.629
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

As a leading figure in the Orthodox School of Chinese painting, Wang Hui believed that the act of painting was a dialogue with one or more masters of the past.

Description

Wang Hui studied paintings by earlier masters and digested their styles with unceasing virtuosity. He had such enduring affection for a landscape by Wang Meng 王蒙 (about 1308–85) that between 1686 and 1712, he made several copies, like this example. One of his compositional transformations here was moving the scholar from the pavilion directly into the landscape by the stream.

His faithful copying also included inscriptions. Wang Meng had written that he was trying to resuscitate the style of an earlier artist, Wen Tong (1018–1079); therefore, Wang Hui sought to revive both Wang Meng and Wen Tong.
  • by 1909-?
    Pang Yuanji 龐元濟 [1864–1949]
    ?–1953
    (Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1953–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Pang, Yuanji 龐元濟. Xu zhai ming hua lu (16 juan) [虛齋名畫錄 (16卷) = Catalogue of paintings in the collection of the author]. Shanghai: Xuantong ji you, 1909. Mentioned: 6a-6b, pp. 19(a)-19(b)
    Pang, Yuanji 龐元濟 and Binglü Pang 龐氷履. Ming bi ji sheng [名筆集勝 = Illustrated catalogue of Chinese paintings in the author's collection]. Shanghai: Mo yuan tang, 1940. Reproduced: III, pl. 11
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. Mentioned: p. 153, cat. no. 84; Reproduced p. 153 archive.org
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 427
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 877 archive.org
    Grousset, René. Chinese Art & Culture. London: A. Deutsch, 1959. Reproduced: pl. 56
    Sullivan, Michael. An Introduction to Chinese Art. London: Faber and Faber, 1961. Reproduced: p. 193, pl. 135
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962. p. 98, no. 79
    Gyllensväd, Bo. "Some Chinese Paintings in the Ernest Erickson Collection." The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin (BMFEA), no. 36 (1964): 159-170. Comparative material. Reproduced: pls. 1-2. Mentioned: pp. 159–161
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 269 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. 269 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. cat. no. 146
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 357 archive.org
    Hironobu Kohara 古原宏伸, Tamaki Ogawa 小川環樹, and Roderick Whitfield. Un Juhei, Ō Ki 惲壽平 王翬. Tōkyō: Chūō Kōronsha, 1979. Reproduced: pp. 145 (fig. 26, detail), p. 157 (pl. 26).
    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. 245, pp. 331-332
    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 and Reproduced: pp. 408–415
    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. 103, fig. 58
  • Six Dynasties of Chinese Painting Part 2. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-September 1, 2024).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 15-April 22, 2002).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 28-August 8, 2000).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 16, 1998-January 22, 1999).
    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); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 3, 1982-February 28, 1983).
    The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).
    Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Tall Bamboo and Distant Mountains, after Wang Meng|url=false|author=Wang Hui|year=1694|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.629