The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 23, 2024
Palace Ladies
1644–1911
copy after Qiu Ying
(Chinese, 1494–1552)
Overall: 36.2 x 454.4 cm (14 1/4 x 178 7/8 in.)
Gift of I. Theodore Kahn 1954.369
Location: not on view
Description
This handscroll illustrates the pursuits of court ladies in a palace precinct on a spring day. Women, young girls, and their maids amuse themselves by sitting on a swing, playing games, watering and admiring peonies, performing music together, playing the qin (zither), feeding a parrot on the balustrade and fish in the water, or catching butterflies. The life of elite women was mostly restricted to the so-called inner quarters, meaning the garden and inner courts of the house. This painting idealizes the world of young palace girls that in fact was often filled with boredom and waiting for a lover.- ?–1954I. Theodore Kahn, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art1954–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Wangwright, Amanda S. "The Sick Man of Asia." In Visualizing the Body in Art, Anatomy, and Medicine Since 1800: Models and Modeling. Andrew Graciano, and Rebecca Marie Messbarger, eds., 180-200. London; New York: Routledge, 2019. Mentioned: P. 187; reproduced: pl. 8.2
- Facing the Ancestors: Chinese Portraits and Figure Painting – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 12, 2019-February 2, 2020).
- {{cite web|title=Palace Ladies|url=false|author=Qiu Ying|year=1644–1911|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.369