The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 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. Water winds horizontally across the scene. From a strip of land in the upper right, people push boats off land. In the lower center, two open-air bungalows extend over the water, with land sweeping across the lower left and around to the upper left corner, where buildings nestle between mountains.

Landscape of the Four Seasons

late 1400s

Yi Sumun

(Korean, b. c. 1404)
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 1976.92.2
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Yi Sumun is believed to have been a 15th-century Korean man who moved to Japan at the age of 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
  • 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
    Williams, Marjorie L., "Korean Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Korean Culture 3, no. 4 (December 1982): 4- 17. Reproduced
    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
    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
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 376 archive.org
    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
  • From Dreaming to Hiking: Korean Landscape Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-September 29, 2024).
    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=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.92.2