The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Horizontally long handscroll depicting twelve sections showing people with light skin tones and different lengths of wiry or curly black hair. Dressed in jagged-edged grey and white rags, they engage in different activities such as eating and playing a drum, one on their knees, one holding a baby, and four appearing with animals. Columns of black Chinese calligraphy appear left of the people and a row in larger, blocky characters on the right (see "Inscriptions").

Beggars and Street Characters

1516

Zhou Chen

(Chinese, c. 1450–c. 1536)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
Overall: 31.9 x 244.5 cm (12 9/16 x 96 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1964.94
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Although Zhou Chen's original composition was an album of 24 figures, today it is mounted as two handscrolls, one in the Cleveland collection and one in the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Description

Zhou Chen from Suzhou provides rare depictions of impoverished people that once filled the city’s markets and streets. Despite Suzhou’s prosperity, its rapid growth polarized society, including the wealthy and those who had deserted their farmlands, who were without homes, unemployed, or sick. Amid these are figures who inspire fear rather than empathy. The painting may thus be informed by local practices at the end of the lunar year, in which street beggars, in exchange for food or money, would dress up like ghosts and demons to drive out evil forces.
  • “Wo Yun 卧雲”, probably Feng Zilü 馮子履 [1539–1596]
    Chen Xin 陳新 [life dates unknown]
    Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY
    ?–1964
    (N. V. Hammer, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1964–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Yang, Xin 楊新. “Zhou Chen de Qishi tu” 周臣的乞食圖 [Zhou Chen’s Beggars] , Meishu yanjiu 美術研究, 2, pp. 85–88.
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 177
    “Acquisitions of Works of Art by Museums and Galleries: Supplement.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 107, no. 744, 1965, pp. 159–167. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 162–163, figs. 77–79 874578
    “Annual Report for 1964.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 52, no. 6, 1965, pp. 141–166. Mentioned: p. 153 25152054
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 264 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E. “Literati and Professionals: Four Ming Painters.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 1, 1966, pp. 2–25. Reproduced: pp. 9, 10, fig. 3. 25152081
    Lawton, Thomas. "Scholar and servants." National Palace Museum Bulletin 國立故宮博物院, Vol. 1, no. 5 (Nov. 1966), pp. 8–10. Reproduced: pp. 8 and 10
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 264 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E. "The Water and the Moon in Chinese and Modern Painting." Art international, vol. 14 (1970), no. 1, pp. 47–59. Mentioned: p. 56, Reproduced: p. 27
    Lee, Sherman E. “Varieties of Portraiture in Chinese and Japanese Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 64, no. 4, 1977, pp. 118–136. Reproduced: pp. 133, 134, figs. 21, 22 25159523
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 350 archive.org
    Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580. New York: Weatherhill, 1978. p. 191
    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. 160, pp. 194–195
    Siggstedt, Mette. Zhou Chen: The Life and Paintings of a Ming Professional Artist. [Stockholm]: [Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities], 1983.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: pp. 8–9
    Clunas, Craig. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China. London: Reaktion Books, 1997. Reproduced: p. 87, no. 47
    Time-Life Books. What Life Was Like in the Land of the Dragon: Imperial China, AD 960-1368. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998. Reproduced: p. 1
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: p. 59, cat. no. 35
    Murphey, Rhoads. A History of Asia. New York: Longman, 1999. Reproduced: p. 204
    Thorp, Robert L., and Richard Ellis Vinograd. Chinese Art & Culture. New York: Abrams, 2001. Reproduced: p. 311
    Murck, Alfreda. "Images that Amonish." Orientations, vol. 32, number 6 (June 2001), pp. 52–57. Reproduced: p. 53, fig. 2
    Hyūman imēji: wareware wa ningen o dono yōni hyōgenshite kita no ka?: tokubetsu tenrankai [ヒューマン・イメージ : われわれは人間をどのように表現してきたのか？: 特別展覧会 = Human images]. Kyoto: Kyōto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2001. Reproduced: p. 212, cat. no. 96
    Mair, Victor H., Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, and Paul Rakita Goldin. Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2005. Reproduced: pl. 99
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 264–269
    Bianchi, Alice. Ghost-Like Beggars in Chinese Painting: The Case of Zhou Chen In: Fantômes dans l'Extrême-Orient d'hier et d'aujourd'hui - Tome 1 [online]. Paris: Presses de l’Inalco, 2017. Mentioned and Reproduced: figs. 13, 15, and 17 books.openedition.org
    Park, J. P. A New Middle Kingdom: Painting and Cultural Politics in Late Chosŏn Korea (1700-1850). Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 95, fig 2.19
    Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 231–233, no. 102
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    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).
    Ji Yun-Fei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 23-October 27, 2003).
    Human Images. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (organizer) (October 23-November 25, 2001).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    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).
    Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Beggars and Street Characters|url=false|author=Zhou Chen|year=1516|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.94