The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Six-panel folding screen depicting a mountainous landscape stretching continuously across the panels in shades of grey and black against a sand color background. Ridges of a mountain cut vertically through the center. Right of this runs water with multiple people crossing a bridge and sitting in houses on either side. Left, people walk away from a large house nestled in the mountains. The people are roughly outlined with thick, short brushstrokes.

Landscape of the Four Seasons

late 1400s

Yi Sumun

(Korean, b. c. 1404)
Korea, Joseon period (1392–1910) or Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
One of a pair of six-panel screens; ink and slight color on paper
Overall: 108 x 361.3 cm (42 1/2 x 142 1/4 in.); Painting only: 92.7 x 348.7 cm (36 1/2 x 137 5/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1976.92.1
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Yi Sumun is believed to have been a 15th-century Korean man who moved to Japan at age 20 and became an influential landscape painter in Japan.

Description

Yi Sumun is believed to have been a Korean painter who migrated to Japan in 1424 at the age of 20. This pair of screens is the artist’s most important composition in this format. Viewed from right to left, the screens show the passage of the four seasons, a popular theme in medieval Japanese ink painting.
  • ?–1976
    (Victor L. Hauge [1919–2013], Falls Church, VA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1976-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, -present
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 376
    Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art : Catalogue. [New York]: Japan Society, 1981. Reproduced: p. 54, fig. 27
    Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. Cleveland: The Museum, 1977. Reproduced: p.92-92, fig. 1-2, Mentioned: p. 11
    Chang, Chin-sung. “Muromachi Ink Painting and Early Joseon Landscape Painting: The Cases of Shūbun, Shūbun, and Bunsei [무로마치(室町)수묵화와 조선 초기 회화-슈분(秀文),슈분(周文),분세이(文淸)를 둘러싼 쟁점들].” Misulsa nondan 36 (2016): 33-60. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Seon Seung-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: p. 25, cat. 13a-b
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Hong, Sun-pyo. "Understanding and Adopting Chinese Painting in 15th-and-16th-century Korean Art Scene [15ㆍ16세기 조선화단의 중국화 인식과 수용태도]. Misulsa nondan (2008): 49-73. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.
    Cunningham, Michael. “Notes on the Artist Sōami and a Lost Painting.” Monumenta Serica 43 (1995): 405–438. Reproduced: pl. 5a-b, pp. 426–427 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 251
  • The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).
    Main Asian Rotation (G121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 2003-March 12, 2004)
    Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape of the Four Seasons|url=false|author=Yi Sumun|year=late 1400s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.92.1