The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 10, 2023

Landscape with a Distant Temple

遠寺山水図

1600s

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Overall: 195.6 x 57.2 cm (77 x 22 1/2 in.); Painting only: 107.7 x 45 cm (42 3/8 x 17 11/16 in.)

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1979.52

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

This painter emulated the style of Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506) a Japanese artist who traveled to China to study painting.

Description

A traveler has presumably descended from the distant temple compound that consists of several buildings linked together by a winding trail lined with steps. The highest point in the compound is occupied by the most sacred structure in Buddhist temple architecture: a mulitroofed pagoda. This rugged landscape, with its towering craggy peaks, pine forests, and river, typifies the idealized image of religious sanctuary in East Asian medieval ink painting.

Inscriptions

Inscription

apocryphal inscription dated 1490 on the upper left edge of the painting.

Provenance
?-1979
(Kinzen Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1979-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1979-present
Citations
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99. Reproduced: cat. no. 129, p. 85; Mentioned: p. 62 www.jstor.org
Cunningham, Michael. “Painting the Wind: A Mid-Fifteenth Century ‘Suibokuga.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 7 (November 1985): 363–377. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 12, p. 371 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 10-July 16, 2003).

Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980).

Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.52