The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Poem on Plum

1700s–1800s

copy after Yi Hwang

(Korean, 1501–1570)
Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Overall: 115 x 68.2 cm (45 1/4 x 26 7/8 in.); Painting only: 46 x 52.7 cm (18 1/8 x 20 3/4 in.)
Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, M.D. 1992.138
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Yi Hwang, the author of this calligraphy, composed more than 100 poems on plum blossoms.

Description

For Yi Hwang, a celebrated scholar and poet in 16th-century Korea, writing poems was an escape from partisan politics. Because its flowers often bloom in the middle of winter, Joseon period Korean scholars like Yi found plum blossoms a perfect subject to express the value of endurance and self-cultivation. In his numerous poems, Yi used plum blossom imagery to express his feelings. The poem on this hanging scroll reads: “Wishing to fly away, red leaves left the mountain villa. Their large sleeves are frosted due to blue clouds. The clouds in the sky look upright, which are beyond human beings’ ability. The plum tree whispered to me that [the leaves] fell from the wind and landed on the fence.” The mountain villa in this poem may refer to the Dosan Academy, a Confucian school that Yi established after his retirement, and the red leaves of the plum blossom are probably Yi’s poetic personification.
  • ?–1992
    The Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Roberta Carroll, MD, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1992–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Mentioned: p. 77 www.jstor.org
    Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: cat. no. 82
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Little, Stephen, Virginia Moon, and In-su Cho. Beyond Line: The Art of Korean Writing. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books·Prestel, 2019.
  • Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 13-July 10, 2017).
    The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).
    Object in Focus: Poem by Yi Hwang. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 5-December 5, 1999).
    Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993).
  • {{cite web|title=Poem on Plum|url=false|author=Yi Hwang|year=1700s–1800s|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.138