The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Vertically long hanging scroll in black ink depicting a mountain extending up from a stream to a wide, bumpy peak. Trees with dots and streaks for leaves gather around the stream winding to the bottom. Nestled below trees, at the bottom, is a square building with a thatched roof, more buildings with triangular roofs clustered between trees above. Navy blue frames the painting, with cream bands above and below.

Buddhist Retreat by Stream and Mountains

960–85

Juran

(Chinese, active 960–985)
China, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
Hanging scroll; ink on silk
Painting only: 184.5 x 56.1 cm (72 5/8 x 22 1/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 260.5 x 77.4 cm (102 9/16 x 30 1/2 in.)
Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer 1959.348
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This hanging scroll with the towering mountain is a prime example of the monumental landscape style of Northern Song.

Description

Monk Juran served the Southern Tang (937–75) imperial house in Nanjing, where he studied with Dong Yuan (active 930s–60s). Both founded the southern landscape tradition, or Jiangnan school, known for gentle misty riverscapes in wet ink.

Juran moved north to Kaifeng when the Southern Tang surrendered to the Northern Song, the impact of which may be seen in this painting, presumably painted after 976. A towering mountain dominates the composition, typically representing the style of the Northern Song academy; while the use of long hemp fiber strokes to texture the mountains, wet dots, and round boulders on mountain tops are elements of the southern landscape tradition.
  • 960-1279
    Song government (Shang Shu Sheng yin 尚書省印), Beijing, China
    1368–98
    Ming government (half-seal Si yin 司印), Beijing, China
    first half of 1600s
    Wu Ting 吳廷 (first half of 1600s)
    1620–1691
    Liang Qingbiao 梁清標 [1620–1691]
    1640–86
    Geng Zhaozhong 耿昭忠 [1640–1686]
    c. 1683–c. 1744
    An Qi 安岐 [c. 1683–c. 1744]
    1736–95
    Qing imperial collection (seals of the Qianlong Emperor), Beijing. China
    early 1900s
    Shao Fu-hsing, Beijing, China
    ?–1959
    Frank F. Cho, New York, NY
    ?–1959
    Katharine Holden Thayer [1898–1985], Gates Mills, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1959–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Sirén, Osvald. A History of Early Chinese Painting. London: Medici Society, 1933. Mentioned and Reproduced: vol. 1, p. 134, pl. 97
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. cat. no. 13, p. 21
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 258 archive.org
    Fu, Shen 傅申. "A Preliminary Study to the extant Works of Chu-Jan 巨然存世畫跡之比較研究." Gu gong zhou kan 故宮週刊 [National Palace Museum Quarterly], vol. II, no. 2 (October 1967), pp. 21–24 [English] and 51–79 [Chinese]. Mentioned: p. 23; Reproduced: Pl. 21A
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 258 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. 1
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 339 archive.org
    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. 11, pp. 15-19
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 50–51
    Shanghai bo wu guan. Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin [翰墨薈萃: 细读美国藏中国五代宋元书画珍品 = Masterpieces of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in American collections]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2012. Reproduced: cat no. 4, pp. 87–88
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  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (organizer) (November 1, 2012-January 3, 2013).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 16-October 28, 2003).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).
    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).
    Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981).
    Chinese Painting, Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1981). Photo-reproduction only on view; reproduced in catalogue, no. 19, p. 32.
    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).
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  • {{cite web|title=Buddhist Retreat by Stream and Mountains|url=false|author=Juran|year=960–85|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1959.348