The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Laozi Riding an Ox

Paintings after Ancient Masters: Laozi Riding an Ox

1598–1652
(Chinese, 1598/99–1652)
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
album leaf, ink and color on silk
Overall: 30.2 x 26.7 cm (11 7/8 x 10 1/2 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1979.27.1.2
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Laozi was an ancient Chinese philosopher who wrote the Daodejing, the foundational text of Daoism.

Description

The twenty paintings in this double-album by Chen Hongshou include landscapes, figures, and flowers. It also has one leaf featuring a woman, an often-used subject not found in the other albums from the latter part of his career. His late works are wonderful summations of Chen's peculiar and quirky art--archaistic, hyper-refined--but without accompanying shallowness or sentimentality.

His figures and landscapes in the late albums are miniaturized, not unlike the small Chinese gardens, or the carefully selected small table rocks or old roots used for contemplation to see the world in miniature. This loss of scale is quite deliberate and reflects the psychological situation of a depressed class like the Ming loyalist officials and scholars, deprived of their integrity and honor, and forced to lead a diminished and restricted existence.
  • Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 [1830–1904], by descent to Wango H. C. Weng
    ?–1979
    (Wango H. C. Weng 翁萬戈 [1918–2020], Lyme, NH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1979–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99. Mentioned: cat. no. 112, p. 62, 98 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: cat. no. 207 pp. 268-272; Reproduced: p. 269, fig. 207B
    Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China: the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 1, pp. 26-27, p. 18, color plate 1
    Steuber, Jason. China: 3000 Years of Art and Literature. New York: Welcome Books, 2007. p. 211
    Laska, P. J. The Original Wisdom of the Dao De Jing: A New Translation and Commentary. Green Valley, AZ: ECCS Books, 2012. Reproduced: cover image
  • Repentant Monk: Illusion and Disillusion in the Art of Chen Hongshou (1599-1652). University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA (organizer) (October 25, 2017-January 28, 2018).
    Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988).
    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); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 3, 1982-February 28, 1983).
  • {{cite web|title=Paintings after Ancient Masters: Laozi Riding an Ox|url=false|author=Chen Hongshou|year=1598–1652|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.27.1.2