The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Bird on a Flowering Branch

1100s

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127–1279)
album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Painting: 23.8 x 24.5 cm (9 3/8 x 9 5/8 in.); Overall: 117 x 41.7 cm (46 1/16 x 16 7/16 in.)
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.371
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The seal at the upper left is an official Yuan dynasty seal used on paintings and calligraphy in the imperial collection.

Description

A male redstart sits hunched on the branch of a flowering plum tree in early spring. The bird’s plumage is rendered in fine detail with a great naturalistic sense, characteristic of Southern Song court painting. While redstarts tend to spend the winter in warmer climates, they may have been seen during the mild winters in China’s southeast in Hangzhou, the seat of the former imperial painting academy where this album leaf was presumably produced. The small square painting must have once been part of an album. When collected in Japan, it was mounted as a hanging scroll, presumably to fit it in an alcove to be enjoyed during the tea ceremony.
  • Marquis Inoue
    (Jean-Pierre Dubosc [1903–1988], Paris, France, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith)
    ?–1985
    The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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: p. 59, cat. no. 44
    Cunningham, Michael R. “Painting the Poetry of the Natural World.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 279–291. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 282–283, fig. 3 www.jstor.org
    Laozi 老子 and James Legge, translator. Tao Te Ching 道德经. New York: Metro Books, 2008. Reproduced: fig. 24
  • Greeting the Spring (Chinese art rotation, galleries 240a, 239, 241c). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 13, 2017).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 16-July 13, 2004).
    A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Bird on a Flowering Branch|url=false|author=|year=1100s|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.371