The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Returning to the Village in a Rainstorm

1530

Xie Shichen

(Chinese, 1487–after 1567)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Handscroll; ink and light color on silk
Overall: 40.3 x 425.4 cm (15 7/8 x 167 1/2 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1975.94
Location: Not on view

Description

This scroll depicts a wind- and rainswept landscape with figures in the countryside struggling against a late summer monsoon rainstorm. Such weather was familiar to residents of the lower Yangzi delta.

Xie Shichen spent most of his life in the Suzhou area. Details of his career are scant, but his surviving works suggest that he made his living as a professional painter. This painting conveys drama and anecdotal observations, characteristic of Zhe school paintings, such as the one by Lü Wenying, CMA 1970.76.
  • Dr. H. Müller, Peking [Beijing], China
    ?–1975
    (Tseng Hsien-chi [1919–2000], Boston, MA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1975–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Sirén, Osvald. A History of Later Chinese Painting. London: The Medici Society, 1938. Mentioned and Reproduced: I, 91, 92, pl. 64, and II, Lists, 214
    Sirén, Osvald. Kinas Konst under Tre årtusenden. Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1943. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 519, 520, pl. 114
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: IV, 58, and VI, pl. 195, and VII, Lists, 191
    Lawton, Mary S. Hsieh Shih-Chʻên: A Ming Dynasty Painter Reinterprets the Past. Chicago: The University, 1978. cat. no. 3
    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. 168, pp. 212–214
    "Visions of Landscape East and West." Asia 4, no. 5 (January/February 1982): 24–29. Reproduced: pp. 24–25
    Talbot, William S. “Visions of Landscape: East and West.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 3 (March 1983): 112–135. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 127, fig. 26 www.jstor.org
    Greene, David B. How to Respond to Strangeness in Art: Four Studies in the Unfamiliar. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Reproduced: fig. 3.10
    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. 248–249, no. 111
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    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).
    The Paintings of Hsieh Shih-ch'en. The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL (organizer) (January 11-February 26, 1978).
    Year in Review: 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 3-March 7, 1976).
  • {{cite web|title=Returning to the Village in a Rainstorm|url=false|author=Xie Shichen|year=1530|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.94