The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Saying Farewell at Xunyang (Song of the Pipa)

Saying Farewell at Xunyang (Song of the Pipa)

1500s
(Chinese, 1502–1575)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
handscroll, ink and color on paper
Overall: 27 x 271.3 cm (10 5/8 x 106 13/16 in.); Painting only: 21 x 60 cm (8 1/4 x 23 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1954.581
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Wen Boren depicted the chilly autumn water with a fishnet pattern.

Description

This handscroll depicts The Song of the Pipa, a poem by Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846) written after the poet’s encounter with a pipa player on the Yangzi River. Expelled from her home city when her beauty and fame had faded, she played for the poet at night. Her musical performance and tragic life story resonated with Bai Juyi, who had just been demoted and exiled from life at court himself. The hazy, vast view and pale color tonalities of this painting illustrate these feelings of endless sadness, having lost one’s sense of purpose in life.
  • Wu Xijia 吳錫嘉 [mid-1700s]
    by 1932
    Yamamoto Teijiro 山本悌二郎 [1870–1937], Tokyo, Japan
    ?-1954
    (Howard Hollis & Company, Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1954-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Yamamoto, Teijirō 山本悌二郎. Chōkaidō shoga mokuroku 澄懐堂書晝目錄. Tokyo: Tanaka Keitarō, 1932. Reproduced: III, pl. 94
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. Mentioned: p. 151. cat. no. 58; Reproduced: p. 84 archive.org
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 266
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962. cat. no. 59
    Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Chugoku kaiga shi 中國繪畫史. Tōkyō: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1981.
    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. Reproduced: pp. 282-286
    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. 185, p. 237
    Peng, Wei 彭薇, and Clarissa von Spee. Migrations of Memory: The Poetry and Power of Music by Chinese Artist Peng Wei in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art = 平沙落雁—音樂的詩意與力量: 中國藝術家彭薇與克利夫蘭藝術博物館合作. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 14
  • Migrations of Memory––The Poetry and Power of Music (平沙落雁 — 音樂的詩意與力量) (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2021-May 8, 2022).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 4-July 23, 2003).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).
    Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Saying Farewell at Xunyang (Song of the Pipa)|url=false|author=Wen Boren|year=1500s|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.581