The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 29, 2023

Rei Shōjo (Ling Zhaonu)

霊昭女図

1500s

inscription by

Shunoku Sōen 春屋 宗園

(Japanese, 1529–1611)

Japan, Muromachi period

(1392–1573)

Hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper

Image: 97.6 x 37.2 cm (38 7/16 x 14 5/8 in.); Overall: 183.4 x 49.3 cm (72 3/16 x 19 7/16 in.); with knobs: 183.4 x 54.5 cm (72 3/16 x 21 7/16 in.)

Gift of Rosemarie and Leighton Longhi 1995.245

Location

not on view

Description

Legend has it that Chinese beauty Ling Zhaonu, whose name is pronounced Rei Shōjo in Japanese, was a model of devotion to her parents. She put great effort into selling baskets made by her elderly father, a devout Buddhist, thereby keeping the family afloat financially. The verse on the painting relates her story, and was inscribed by a Zen monk.

Provenance
?–1995
Leighton R. and Rosemarie Longhi, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1995–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
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: p. 117, cat. no. 78
Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Reproduced: cat. no. 14, pp. 56–57
Longhi, Leighton R. Leighton R. Longhi: Forty-Five Years in Asian Art. [New York, N.Y.]: Leighton R. Longhi, 2019. Reproduced: p. 70, fig. 55
Exhibition history

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).

Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).

Japanese art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 19, 2019-January 5, 2020).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.245