The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Gazing at a Waterfall
1790
(Japanese, 1763–1841)
Painting: 112.5 x 51.1 cm (44 5/16 x 20 1/8 in.); Mounted: 214 x 54.5 cm (84 1/4 x 21 7/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1972.16
Location: 235A Japanese
Did You Know?
Drive about eight hours west of Shanghai to get to Mount Lu, the mountain range likely alluded to in this painting.Description
Artist Tani Bunchō painted this image in a mountain pavilion during winter. He inscribed it with two lines of a poem: “The stone cliff of layered rocks is extremely high. Waterfalls tumbling from the skies reverberate in the clouds.” The scholarly figure and attendant carrying his qin (a stringed instrument) are set amid majestically soaring mountains in China. For many people in Japan at the time, the image would call to mind a poem about a waterfall at Mount Lu by Chinese poet Li Bai (701–762).- ?–1972(Shogoro Yabumoto, Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1972–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: cat. no. 20
- To the River's South in Japanese Painting (Japanese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 15, 2023-June 2, 2024).Japanese art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 19, 2019-January 5, 2020).The Lure of Painted Poetry: Cross-cultural Text and Image in Korean and Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
- {{cite web|title=Gazing at a Waterfall|url=false|author=Tani Bunchō|year=1790|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.16