The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 14, 2024

Solitary Colors of the Autumn Woods

Solitary Colors of the Autumn Woods

first half 1600s
(Chinese, active 1621–1662)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
hanging scroll; ink and color on satin
Image: 117.8 x 51.2 cm (46 3/8 x 20 3/16 in.); Overall: 227 x 81.3 cm (89 3/8 x 32 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1972.68
Location: not on view

Description

Two gentlemen stand outside a thatched hut in a dense forest; some trees have bare branches indicating that the season is early autumn. Wang Jianzhang’s inscribed poem refers to a chapter called “Autumn Water” from Zhuangzi, a famous Daoist text written in the 3rd century BC: "Cold frost falls on the fences, / Solitary colors scatter the maples. / Reciting the chapter of “The Autumn Water,” / I cannot still the emotion in my old heart." Wang Jianzhang lived through the collapse of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the rise of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), when China was governed by the Manchus, an ethnic people from Manchuria who were traditionally viewed as “barbarians” by the Chinese. The poetic reference to Zhuangzi’s “Autumn Water” seems to discreetly convey Wang’s feelings about his country being taken over. “Autumn Water” was about learning to take steps in the foreign way, but not acquiring a foreign tongue. Perhaps Wang was lamenting his conflicted situation. For survival he had to adapt to the new political and social climate, while still trying to maintain his own identity and Chinese traditions.
  • ?–1972
    (Shogoro Yabumoto, Hyogo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1972–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Vanderstappen, Harrie A. " The Style of Some Seventeenth-Century Chinese Paintings." In Artists and Traditions: Uses of the Past in Chinese Culture. Edited by Christian F. Murck, pp. 149–168. Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1976. Reproduced: p. 155, figs. 4, 5
    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. Mentioned: cat. no. 201, p. 258; Reproduced: cat. no. 201, p. 257
    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. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 64, cat. no. 39
  • Chinese Gallery 240a Rotation – August 2016. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1, 2016-February 6, 2017).
    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).
    Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981: Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, cat. no. 201, p. 258.
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
  • {{cite web|title=Solitary Colors of the Autumn Woods|url=false|author=Wang Jianzhang|year=first half 1600s|access-date=14 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.68