The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 21, 2025

The Ninth Day Literary Gathering at Xing’an [Temporary Retreat]

1743
(Chinese, 1693–1751)
(Chinese, active late 1600s–mid-1700s)
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Image: 32.4 x 201.2 cm (12 3/4 x 79 3/16 in.); Overall: 33.5 x 893 cm (13 3/16 x 351 9/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1979.72
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The two hosts and their fourteen guests were all officials, scholars, poets, painters, and salt merchants.

Description

By the 1700s, Yangzhou was flourishing both economically and culturally as the most prosperous city in China, having surpassed all other Jiangnan cities in their creation of gardens. This group portrait commemorates a literary gathering in the private garden of the salt merchants and art patrons Ma Yueguan (1688–1755) and his brother Ma Yuelu (1697–after 1766) in Yangzhou. Ma Yueguan received imperial recognition for providing financial aid and food relief for those affected by flood and drought. Ma Yueguan is seen seated at the end of the painting holding an open scroll while Ma Yuelu stands behind the qin instrument player. Among the guests were officials, scholars, poets, painters, and merchants, a mix of local members of a poetry club reflecting increasing social diversity
  • 1743–after 1766
    Ma Yueguan 馬曰琯 [1688–1755] and Ma Yuelu 馬曰璐 [1697–after 1766], Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China
    Chen Kuilin 陳夔麟 [1855–after 1915]
    ?–1979
    (Wan-go Weng 翁萬戈 [1918–2020], Lyme, NH, sold sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1979–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Brothers Ma Yueguan and Ma Yuelu, who hosted the Ninth Day Literary Gathering at their Xing’an garden, were wealthy salt merchants, poets, collectors, and patrons of the arts.
    2 Inspired in part by this painting, Wan-go Weng painted a handscroll to commemorate an “elegant gathering” of his own that took place in April 1985, when six of the most respected historians of Chinese painting and calligraphy met to view the Weng collection. Elegant Gathering at the Laixi Residence 萊溪雅集圖卷 is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession number 2018.2899).
  • Li, Dou 李斗, Wang Beiping 汪北平, and Tu Yugong 涂雨公. Yangzhou hua fang lu 揚州畫舫錄. Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju chu ban; Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing, 1960. (Preface dated 1795). Mentioned: IV, 6(b)
    Chen, Kuilin 陳夔麟. Bao yu ge shu hua lu 寶迂閣書畫錄 . Shanghai: [publisher not identified], 1915. (Preface dated 1855). Mentioned: III, 57(b)-61(b)
    Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1934. Mentioned and Reproduced: I, supp., p. 9(b)
    Fukunaga, Takehiko 福永武彥, and Howard L. Rogers. Kinnō, Bunjinga suihen. chiyūgo (9) 金農, 文人画粋編. 中国篇 9. Tōkyō: Chūōkoronsha, 1976. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 176-78, pl. 82, fig. 28
    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. 115, p. 86; Mentioned: p. 62 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. Reproduced: cat. no. 275, pp. 372-376
    Chou, Ju-hsi, and Claudia Brown. The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting Under the Qianlong Emperor, 1735-1795. Phoenix, AZ: Phoenix Art Museum, 1985. Reproduced: fig. 34, p. 109
    Graham, Patricia J. "Lifestyles of Scholar-Painters in Edo Japan." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 7 (1990): 262-83. Reproduced: p. 265; Mentioned: p. 264-65, 282 www.jstor.org
    Giacalone, Vito, and Ginger Cheng-chi Hsü. The Eccentric Painters of Yangzhou. New York City: China House Gallery, China Institute in America, 1990. Reproduced: cat. no. 1, p. 31
    Harrist, Robert E., and Gonglin Li. Painting and Private Life in Eleventh-Century China: Mountain Villa by Li Gonglin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Reproduced: figure 40
    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. Reproduced: cat. no. 46, p. 74
    Thorp, Robert L., and Richard Ellis Vinograd. Chinese Art & Culture. New York: Abrams, 2001. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 345, 9-29
    Nelson, Susan E. "Revisiting the Eastern fence: Tao Qian's chrysanthemums." Art Bulletin, September 2001, Vol. 83, Issue 3, pp. 437-460. Reproduced: p. 445
    Chung, Anita, Massoud Saidpour, "Reflections of Art and Theater", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 08, October 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8-9 archive.org
    Pirazzoli-tʼSerstevens, Michèle, and Anne Kerlan-Stephens. Autour des collections d'art en Chine au XVIIIe siècle. Genève: Librairie Droz, 2008. pg. 146, fig. 4
    Chiem, Kristen. "Picturing Common Ground: Painting and Poetic Exchange Beyond Eighteenth-Century Yangzhou." Artibus Asiae 73, no. 1 (2013): 181-218. Reproduced: pp. 202, 203, fig. 13 www-jstor-org.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org
    Finnane, Antonia. Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550-1850. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 22, p. 254
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 447–453
    Zhang, Jinhua, and Don Cohn. The Classical Chinese Furniture of Weiyang: Literati Culture and Craftsmanship in the Yangzhou Region During the Ming and Qing Dynasties. London: Rasika/Sylph Editions, 2016. Reproduced: pp. 36-37, fig. 11
    Vinograd, Richard Ellis. Facing China: Truth and Memory in Portraiture. London: Reaktion Books, 2022. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 176–177, fig. 84
  • 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 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 21, 2013-July 28, 2014).
    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).
    The Eccentric Painters of Yangzhou. China Institute in America, New York, NY (October 20-December 15, 1990).
    Scholar's Studio. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-December 17, 1989).
    The Elegant Brush: Chinese Painting under the Ch'ien-lung. Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (August 25-October 6, 1985); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (February 8-March 23, 1986); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (May 13-August 13, 1986).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984).
    Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1983).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980).
  • {{cite web|title=The Ninth Day Literary Gathering at Xing’an [Temporary Retreat]|url=false|author=Fang Shishu, Ye Fanglin|year=1743|access-date=21 May 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.72