The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Boats at Anchor on West Lake at the City Gate

1150–1200

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)
Album leaf; ink and color on silk
Image: 25.3 x 19.2 cm (9 15/16 x 7 9/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1978.68
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The depiction of the female figure playing the pipa and the scholarly male evokes an association with a romantic encounter narrated in a well-known Tang dynasty poem.

Description

Highlighted with a few bright accents, this fan painting conveys a nightly atmosphere with boats anchoring on West Lake at the foot of the city walls. Willow trees line the embankment, and the moon appears above the mountains. While the city is asleep, a figure wearing red inside a boat holds what appears to be a pipa (plucked stringed instrument), while a blue-robed gentleman nearby gazes toward the sound of music, evoking an association with Song of the Lute (Pipa xing) by Tang poet Bai Juyi (772–846) which tells the story of a romantic encounter on the Yangzi River.
  • ?–1978
    (Kochukyo Company, Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1978–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928. p. 63
    Harada, Yoshito 原田淑人 and Kazuchika Komai 駒井和愛. Shina koki zukō 支那古器圖攷. Tōkyō: Tōhō Bunka Gakuin Tōkyō Kenkyūjo, Shōwa 7 [1932]. II, 2, pl. IV (1)
    Harada, Kinjirō 原田謹次郎. Shina meiga hōkan [支那名畫寶鑒 = The pageant of Chinese painting]. Tōkyō: Ōtsuka Kōgeisha, 1936. Reproduced: pl. 116
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: II, Lists, 72
    Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1978.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (January 1979): 3–47. Reproduced: p. 31; Mentioned: p. 46, no. 150 www.jstor.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. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 38, p. 55
    Cahill, James. The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. Reproduced: p. 48, no. 1.39
    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. 42, cat. no. 19
    Li, Huishu 李慧漱. Exquisite Moments: West Lake & Southern Song Art. New York: China Institute Gallery, China Institute, 2001. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 70–71, cat. no. 5
    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: p. 179, no. 60
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 4–July 22, 2003).
    West Lake and the Mapping of Southern Song Art. China Institute in America, New York, NY (organizer) (September 13-December 9, 2001).
    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).
    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).
    Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).
    To-So-Gen-Min, II. Tokyo Imperial Museum, Tokyo, Japan (November 24-December 16, 1928).
  • {{cite web|title=Boats at Anchor on West Lake at the City Gate|url=false|author=|year=1150–1200|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1978.68