Collection Online as of April 1, 2023

Yin Hong 殷宏

(Chinese, c. 1430-c. 1500)

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk

Painting: 240 x 195.5 cm (94 1/2 x 76 15/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 280 x 204 cm (110 1/4 x 80 5/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1974.31

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The peahen is plucking a dandelion.

Description

This scroll depicts a spring scene with all kinds of birds, including one peacock with a hen among peonies. The painting is one of four surviving works by Yin Hong bearing his signature and seals. Some scholars debate whether this work depicts the theme “One Hundred Birds admiring the Phoenix,” a metaphor for human society presenting an idealized hierarchy under imperial rule; other scholars argue that peafowls, as exotic birds not native to China, would not be depicted to represent the emperor.

This large painting might have been hung in a palace hall and may have been part of a set depicting the four seasons.

Inscriptions

Inscription

殷宏. [印]金臺世家

Inscription Translation

Artist's signature and seal: Yin Hong. [seal] Jin tai shi jia

Provenance

?-November 1917

Marquis Yoshitaka Satake 侯爵佐竹義理 [1858–1914]

?-1974

(Fugendo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1974-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Satake Koshaku-ke gozoki nyusatsu [佐竹候爵家御蔵噐入札 = Sale Catalogue of the Collection of the Marquis Satake Family], Tōkyō Bijutsu Club, November 3-5, 1917. cat. no 46

Lee, Sherman E. “Early Ming Painting at the Imperial Court.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 62, no. 8, 1975, pp. 243–259. Reproduced: pp. 297, 298, cover, fig. 18. www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 348 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. 124, p. 148

Barnhart, Richard M., Mary Ann Rogers, and Richard Stanley-Baker. Painters of the Great Ming: The Imperial Court and the Zhe School. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 97, fig. 46

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. Reproduced: pp. 92-93

Sung, Hou-Mei. “The Three Yin Masters of the Ming Court: Yin Shan, Yin Xie and Yin Hong.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 58, no. 1/2, 1998, pp. 91–113. Reproduced: fig. 6, p. 102 www.jstor.org

Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and New York Botanical Garden. Chinese Peony Exhibition: May 5-June 4, 2000 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Bronx, NY: The Garden, 2000. Reproduced: cover

Sesshū: botsugo 500-nen tokubetsuten [雪舟 : 没後 500年特别展 = Sesshu, master of ink and brush: 500th anniversary exhibition]. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 2002. cat. no. 43

Sayre, Henry M. Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2004. Reproduced: p. 46

Stokstad, Marilyn, David Cateforis, and Stephen Addiss. Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. Reproduced: fig. 21-4

Schoeser, Mary. Silk. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. Reproduced: pp. 90-91

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. Boston, MA: Pearson2014. Reproduced: fig. 25-4, p. 798

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. 233-236

Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 16-October 28, 2003).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 28, 2014-January 7, 2015).

Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).

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).

Sesshu, Master of Ink and Brush: 500th Anniversary Exhibition. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (April 23-May 19, 2002).

Flora and Fauna (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2020-June 6, 2021).

The Cleveland Museum of Art